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

Board Games For Families = Fun For Everyone!

Whether you are married with no kids, have toddlers, tweens, teens or beyond … the key to a happy household is to get a closet full of board games for families. Family board games are not just Candyland and Monopoly anymore. There is a vast new world of intriguing, strategic, entertaining board games we have recently stumbled upon. Our hope is to spread the word about these great games that are mostly coming out of Europe and let everyone know how much fun it can be to enjoy the wonderful world of board games and how it can strengthen family relationships.

Couples Gaming

How much would you spend for a date night with your spouse? $20, $50, $100 for just ONE date? For a lot of people that is just not feasible any more and they are looking to cut costs. What if you bought just ONE board game every few months and used them for night after night of quality time with your spouse. It’s much more engaging to play games together than to just watch tv side by side or sit on your computers each doing your own thing.

Children’s Board Games

While playing the traditional games like Snakes and Ladders and Candyland can be fun, they are not very mentally stimulating for the kids, and frankly they are quite boring for adults. There are quite a few games out there that are getting kids prepared to play the more intense strategy games as they get a little older. These games are pretty fun for grownups as well. You can also take an adult game and “dummy-down” the rules a bit in order to make it playable for younger children. Kids always want to mimic their parents so they will be thrilled to get to play games just like mom and dad. Consider purchasing games that kids can play with “just kids” as well as games that will need more interaction. It’s always nice for them to have their own board game to play when mom and dad want to engage in a more serious board game.

Board Games for Families

If you have an older crew your gaming possibilities are endless. Most of the really fun new European-style board games are fairly playable for kids 8 and up. They may not get ALL the strategic nuances but they can get the general game play down and have fun. Teenagers that won’t normally sit and engage with adult family members are much more likely to sit down and spend an evening playing games. What a great way to interact!

Keep reading our blog as we will be discussing many great board games for families of all types and ages. We hope you will start to enjoy them as much as we all do!