Managing Contention in Family Board Games

Now being a “little” on the competitive side myself, I can actually relate to this story I found in a Utah paper today. There seems to be an abundance of poor sports in my state lately.

Incident One

A Salt Lake City woman is accused of throwing shot glasses at her husband and attempting to stab him with a cane after the two argued over a card game earlier this week. The 58-year-old woman was playing cards with her husband, daughter and her daughter’s friend … The woman pelted her husband and daughter with shot glasses. The daughter and the daughter’s friend left the house, and the woman then began hitting her husband in the head with a cane, charges state. The cane broke and the woman pointed it at her husband and threatened to stab him, according to the charges. She then found a baseball bat and began striking her husband with it. The man had to seek medical treatment for his injuries, charges state.

Incident Two

An Orem man whose luck ran out in a game of Uno was arrested Aug. 15 on suspicion of aggravated assault after he allegedly hit a woman and threatened her husband with a large kitchen knife. The 58-year-old man, who had been drinking, was playing cards in his home with his 47-year-old nephew and the nephew’s wife, 64, when he became agitated over the game, police said. He hit his nephew’s wife on the back of the head and when the couple later tried to leave, he waved a large kitchen knife at his nephew, Orem police said.

Now there must be something about being 58 years old that brings out severe aggression in card games. I have to admit to having thrown a few tantrums a time or two in some of our family board game sessions. But I can honestly say I’ve never attempted (or threatened) to stab someone over it. The worst I’ve done is throw a monopoly board at my husband, and get into a yelling match in front of his friend.

Here are some tips for managing contention when playing games (especially with family members):

1. Don’t play past midnight
2. Avoid games where there is the chance to “gang up” on one player
3. When you can feel yourself getting heated … just walk away
4. Try not to laugh when someone else is having bad luck
5. When people are having a bad game, allow them to vent about it
6. Don’t gave false sympathy to the loser, just move on to the next game
7. When all else fails, just go to bed and the next day you will remember it being a fun game night

Remember that families that play together stay together (as long as they can avoid the fighting). Hopefully you can find some fun board games for families that won’t incite this type of rage in your household