There is a rumor – a false one, as a matter of fact – that I’m overly competitive. This is not true.
I’m not overly competitive. I just don’t like to lose.
This is the reason no one in my family will play any game with me. Every holiday, I will drag out some board game and try to get someone to join in, only to hear muttering about “the last time” and “don’t you remember what happened?”
My nephew, Collier, who is 10, the victim of a similar type of falsehood. It seems Collier is a vicious game player, especially when it comes to Monopoly. He takes it so seriously that we’re starting to wonder if he doesn’t have real money riding on Boardwalk and Park Place.
Each time he has one of these competitive outbursts, the statement is made that he “gets it from his Aunt Leada.”
This is not true of course. It’s not our fault that we like to win.
And now, comes the newest member of the winners club. We were introduced to her last week when we purchased the game Candy Land for Sutton.
For those of you who don’t now, Candy Land is a game designed for toddlers that aren’t reading yet. Players move their pieces based on colored cards, advancing from space to space. If you land on certain squares, you have to go backwards. Other spots move you quicker up the board.
Sutton and I sat down to play, but only after I read her the directions. I could quickly tell that things might not go as planned.
First, Sutton decided her card that showed two purple squares indicated she should move to any two purple squares she wanted. Then, she decided she liked my playing piece better, so she just started moving it.
Once, she landed on a square that should have sent her back to the start. Instead, she just slid her man up one space and looked up at me innocently.
“You know, if we’re going to play, we should follow the rules,” I said.
She ignored me. Soon, Sutton had moved her game piece (that was once my game piece) to the end of the board.
“I won!” she yelled.
What’s a mother to do?
“You did,” I said. “That’s great. Let’s look over the rules again to make sure we all understand them.”
That’s what I said. What I was thinking was “Come on kid. Want to go for two out of three?”
There are some things too hard to change.