Fun and Games

Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi once said, “If it doesn’t matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?” Of course, he was talking about professional football, not an innocent game of Candy Land, but our older daughter seems to have embraced his philosophy at an early age.

She absolutely believes that it matters who wins and loses, and she HATES to lose. She is fiercely competitive and keeps running tallies of how many Yahtzee games she’s won against you and how many goals her kindergarten-age soccer team has made against the opponent, even though her league doesn’t technically keep score yet.

Granted, our llama comes by it naturally. Her great-grandmother played a mean game of Trivial Pursuit and knew ALL the answers, including Hans Christian Andersen’s mailing address when asked for more information by my joking grandfather, who seldom won the game but had more fun than anyone playing. Grandma was nothing if not competitive.

When we play board games together, I won’t “throw” the game to let my daughter win because that doesn’t teach a fair life lesson. However, she is quite lucky (I’m considering taking her to Vegas in a few years) and most of the games we play are based on chance, not skill, which means she wins most of the time. This actually makes the experience more pleasant because she’s not sulking or crying over losing – but you are subjected to her over-the-top victory celebrations.

Last weekend, we were playing a friendly Littlest Pet Shop game. Occasionally, I would win and that would set off tears in our llama over the agony of defeat. But when SHE won, she got all Harvey Korman on my Eunice – remember the classic sketch from the old Carol Burnett Show when they were playing the board game Sorry? – she could not have been more annoying if she had been ringing that obnoxious little bell in my face.

In short, she’s a sore loser AND a sore winner.

I grew up playing games with my family and LOVED them; I don’t remember getting so upset if I lost. But then again, we had to remove the buzzer from the game Operation because it scared my little brother, so who knows whether I won or lost?!?

Anyway, I’ve tried to instill in my children the joy of playing games, regardless of the outcome, but I’m failing miserably. Our oldest doesn’t even want to participate if she doesn’t think she can win, which affects not only board games at home but activities at birthday parties and other social functions. She’s a typical first born child – very much the perfectionist – and likes to excel. I’m not opposed to her being competitive as long as it stays in check at a healthy level.

Otherwise, she’s going to miss out on a lot of fun in her life – and I have a feeling that even Coach Lombardi wouldn’t want to win that way.