The Games We Play

The Mud Puddle has hit that age where he is all about the games. Whether it is Dora and Nemo on our computer (he still doesn’t close down before shutting off, much to my horror since it is on our computer at home) or a board game on the living room rug, he loves to get right into the competition.

Scott and I have been pretty much on the same page when it comes to parenting – what he eats, when he sleeps, what he watches on tv. But on the issue of games we have two very different views. I let him win, pretty much every time He is THREE and I maintain that it won’t hurt to let him win now. Sure, when he is seven I am not going to be throwing games of SkipBo but for now I don’t seem the harm.

Scott on the other hand plays to win. The first time he beat the Mud Puddle at HiHo Cherrios there were some tears, but Scott taught him that he has to be a gracious winner and a loser so after every game they shake hands and say good game.

This divide in our parenting styles is not surprising because it exists (please, we were bound to disagree on SOMETHING) but because of the views that we wound up taking. I am ultra-competitive and a hard core cheater.
Seriously, I come from a long line of cheaters – my grandmother taught me how to cheat at solitaire for goodness sake, it doesn’t get more cheater-ific than that.
You would think I would be the one going after the win at any cost. But I feel like when he is trying something new that he should have the opportunity to have a positive experience with it.

This weekend the Mud Puddle picked up a Dora dominoes game. I LOVE dominoes, and we were having a pretty good time. He was winning (with some poorly thrown moves from me) and we got to a point in the game where I couldn’t NOT win. He had like 12 dominoes in front of him and I had one and there were not enough left for me to even pretend to need. So I won. And he was fine with it, shook my hand and said good game. It was great.

Now I fear my competitor-monster will be out in full force and I will be taking the W from him in all manner of Old Maid, Slap SpongeBob (a home grown game and not nearly as violent as it sounds) and Connect Four.