Board games are a pretty big draw in our house, and the game of LIFE has been the frontrunner lately as the game of choice by my nine-year-old. Interestingly, I seem to be learning more about what I’m teaching my son than I think he learns about growing up when we play the game.
For example, he is brutally disappointed if he makes it through the game of LIFE without landing on the space that allows him to ‘collect’ at least one set of twins. He loves to land on the ‘have a baby’ spaces, much more so than the ‘sue another player’ or ‘spin to win’ spaces. This, I think, means I’ve done well. His most important goal is family. Since he is an only child, I feel a bit stricken by the fact that he craves twins in the game because I know he craves a sibling that I will not be giving him. But it still makes me smile when he wants to get twins so badly.
Last week, when I landed on the orange ‘get married’ space, he asked me if I wanted a blue or a pink person. I said I guess I’ll take a blue person, and he said he just asked because he wasn’t sure if I wanted to be gay. This, I think, means I’ve done well again. My son seems to consider being gay as a natural possibility, and perhaps, in this other LIFE, I would like to be gay. Fair enough, and I feel good about it. I said I would stick to being straight because I love his dad and would like to stay married to him. He agreed that would be a good idea.
Last night when we played, I asked him if he wanted a blue or a pick person when he landed on the ‘get married’ space. He was embarrassed, and just rolled his eyes. I asked him to explain. ‘You know I like girls’, he told me. ‘But it’s okay for boys to like boys, I don’t have a problem with that,’ he added quickly. Awesome. I was going to pat myself on the back for a job well done, but I didn’t want to make a big deal about it.
‘I’ll put your baby on the right side of the back seat so you can see him,’ he said and rolled his eyes at me once again. I like my son to sit on the right side of the back seat so I can catch a quick glimpse of him at a red light or a stop sign just to double check that he is belted in or sitting up in the seat properly or not picking his nose. He likes to give me a hard time about that, but he puts his first kid on the right side of the back seat as well. Give me a hard time, but follow my lead anyway. I can live with that.
Last night he also picked the mobile home as his starter home. Okay. (The mobile home is the only starter that doesn’t accrue equity, but it is also the least expensive.) Have I taught him to go cheap and not worry about investing in the future? Or is he just a kid who doesn’t want to hand off all that fake cash sitting in front of him? He has been skipping college in the last several games as well, although he’s been telling me since he was seven that he wants to go to USC. Does this mean that in his reality, he has an long game, but in his fantasy LIFE, he just wants to get his hands on the cash, and fast? Is he a risk taker and he has decided that it only takes either 15 minutes of fame or the right spin on the game board to make it big? Or is it that he just wants to win the darn game? So, have I taught him to live in the moment (good) or not plan for the future (not as good)? I waiver in my opinion on that lesson depending on the state of our bank account on any given day. As for taking risks, well, at this point in his life, I believe it’s a great thing. We encourage him to try new things, get out there and play, try that trick at Skatelab (as long as you are well-padded), don’t be the kid on the side of the pool, jump in! Of course, that is always followed by my caveat of, ‘but calculate your risks before you take them, find your out first, you are not going near the ocean without me unless you are certified as a jr. lifeguard, etc....Thankfully, at least for now, he isn’t copying my ‘crazy’, but I suspect that those twins in the back seat will be jr. lifeguards by the time they are ten.
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