No One Ever Died From a Lack of Playing Board Games With Their Mother

Kristin Devine

Kristin has humbly retired as Ordinary Times' friendly neighborhood political whipping girl to focus on culture and gender issues. She lives in a wildlife refuge in rural Washington state with too many children and way too many animals. There's also a blog which most people would very much disapprove of https://atomicfeminist.com/

Related Post Roulette

14 Responses

  1. For some reason I spaced off when writing this. My older sons are actually 28 and 24.Report

  2. ” In fact, that is how my mother introduces me to people: “This is my daughter, Kristin, she has five children and they’re all with the same man!””

    OMG.Report

  3. “I worried when he tried to cheat to win”

    Heh. When I was a kid, I took that final, winner takes all card (I forget what it was….a chocolate river or something?), and put it fourth in the deck. Then, when there were three other players, I’d insist on going last, appearing all magnanimous, but secretly counting on getting the winning card. However…..I didn’t count on my sister shuffling the deck. So my plot was foiled.Report

    • Sitting here now, 3 decades later and with endless hours of research and life experience under my belt, I now think cheating at games is developmentally appropriate and probably necessary. How big a learning experience is that – trying to cheat only to find you get caught, or someone flummoxes you by shuffling the deck, or my memory as a child – cheating, winning, and feeling guilty about it. By trying to circumvent that I was probably again preventing learning and growth from happening.

      And thanks for reading! 🙂Report