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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to HATE children's board games?

127 replies

ILoveDrKarl · 08/05/2011 15:31

OK - so I know I probably am - but my heart fills with dread when any of my children receive board games as presents, because I'll have to play the dreadful things!

My 2 eldest children are 6 & 3 so not at the age yet when they can go off and play games against each other, meaning we have to play the games with them.

Don't get me wrong - I love playing with my kids and I also love board games - but these kiddie games are DIRE and I HATE them with a vengence!

Currently trying to avoid playing a no doubt lengthy game of "Frustration"....

OP posts:
mrstimlovejoy · 08/05/2011 18:04

i love the traditional board games and my dd has had a couple of the orchard games for presents which are good.
infact most of today we have played board games and i've quite enjoyed it.makes a change from watching peppa pig etc.

timetomoveon · 08/05/2011 18:11

I love board games. I loved them as a kid (my brother and I used to play them loads as we didn't have a tv til I was about 13 iirc) and I love that ds is now able to play simple ones (he's 3y2m).

Original poster
ILoveDrKarl · 08/05/2011 18:21

I dream of the day I can sit down and play "proper" board games with the kids - both DH and I come from board/card game families and we love sitting down with our parents and siblings playing them when we go to visit - but it's games for little children that I hate - anything aimed at children under 8 is generally S**T

OP posts:
strandednomore · 08/05/2011 18:45

I feeeeeeel your pain. I have dd1, 5 and dd2, 3 and they love playing crappy games like Shopping List and Hungry Harry - we'd branch out a bit of dd2 was a little older and understood what to do.
However dd1 has recently discovered Happy Families which is quite fun.
Have you tried drawing games like heads/body/legs? That can actually be quite funny.

msbuggywinkle · 08/05/2011 18:47

I have always loathed them, mainly due to my little sister have constant conniption fits about them.

DD1 wants the Dragonology game for her birthday...save me!

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 08/05/2011 18:57

We played snakes and ladders to death when DS was 5, used two dice and added together, taught him to add all combinations up to sixes and made the whole thing finish more quickly, win-win. Lotto games are also popular in our house, we have a big one with numbers and we printed out the traditional bingo call from the internet to liven it up a bit. We like a lot of the Orchard ones still (DCs are 5 and 7). Snails Pace Race is one of the earliest ones the DCs could play together without adult intervention, which gets it top marks from me, they support their own snail though, the no one is a winner doesn't wash here either.

Ones I have hated invariably seem to be ones associated with characters, which are so complicated that by the time the DCs are old enough to get the rules they think the character is babyish (Gruffalo and Hungry Caterpillar I mean you). Worthy eco type ones by companies you've never heard of seem to get the thumbs down too.

Takver · 08/05/2011 19:09

I agree that board games aimed at small children are dire. It improves massively IMO when they get to about 6 or 7 and you can play adult board games with a bit of simplification of the rules. (Carcassone is a good one, no text so fine for non readers, and easy to simplify a bit for smaller children.)

On the other hand . . . it is so useful when they reach the age where they can play proper games and make up a third (and indeed fourth/fifth etc if you have more children than I do) that I think it is worth putting up with the short term pain. All of a sudden lots of our board games have reappeared out of the back of the cupboard where they've languished since we stopped living in a shared house :)

DontCallMeBaby · 08/05/2011 19:25

Okay, I take it back - we have just played Labyrinth (it's my birthday so am calling the shots today) and DD drove us both nuts by deciding her next three moves, then completely failing to notice what had gone on on the board in between her turns. So you do need to pay a BIT of attention. [hmm

Disney Princess ones have probably been the worst here - mind boggling complicated rules all wrapped up in pink and bling. "Sadly" the magic mirror broke in the eponymous game ... no, I didn't help it along its way, but I wasn't sorry to see it go.

kaid100 · 08/05/2011 19:28

I love boardgames. I'll be teaching my DDs how to play chess from the
age of 4.

inthesticks · 08/05/2011 19:30

Those of you who love board games but hate the kiddie ones, persevere because it will pay off in the end. I went through the torture of Frustration and Who am I? The DSs are now 13 and 15 and will happily play games from Ticket to Ride to Scrabble to Whist with us.
Uno is a family favourite on holidays , I never travel without it.

Ragwort · 08/05/2011 19:35

I love them too Blush - don't worry too much about the babyish ones, introduce the more advanced ones to your children as soon as possible.

Stick to the 'traditional' games rather than the 'trendy' ones - chess, Uno, Sorry, Scrabble, card games etc.

I would so much rather play board games than most of the other parenting stuff we are meant to do Grin - and I wish we were playing tonight instead of DS slumped in front of the TV and me in another room infront of the PC Sad.

dementedma · 08/05/2011 19:45

hate board games here too. Although can just about handle Othello and Yahtzee. The rest are tedious with small children.

youngjoly · 08/05/2011 19:56

I agree with Rag - avoid the games aimed at young children and just simplify some of the usual games.

My four year old is able to play Sorry, Uno extreme (she loves pressing the button!) and simple card games like Newmarket, 21 and sevensies.

Should I be ashamed to admit that our 'games nights' on these games are actually quite good fun now?

Smallstuff · 08/05/2011 20:05

I love board games. We got Rapidough at Christmas which my ds (7 & 5) can play it's hilarious....sculpting play dough into stupid items for your team to guess!, I also love orchard games. Especially Tummy ache which is very simple and quick, Post the Most which is fab and all the lotto type ones.
I hate Kerplunk tho. DD (3) can't understand that she isn't supposed to win the marbles!
We also play games from my child hood. Actual 70's versions that my mum kept such as Haunted House, Mouse Trap Jumble Sale.
Can't wait for them to get cluedo, monopoly whist etc.
Must try UNO soon always loved that.
And I actually LIKE top trumps...I must be a bit odd!!!Grin

Ragwort · 08/05/2011 20:11

Can I recommend Rummicub - my absolute favourite game - you can use your brain as well as playing with a child (if that makes sense, not very well worded Grin) - its is educational and good fun - number based.

I hate, hate, hate 'Mousetrap' - will never forget the Christmas we bought it for DS - DH spent hours trying to assemble it, I can remember sitting there trying to look as though I was enjoying myself and thinking that this is the worst possible part of being a parent, fortunately DS got bored with it before I hid put it away.

PandaG · 08/05/2011 20:12

I'm with whoever said it is worth the pain of playing the kiddy games initially, as now ours are 9 and 11 they love playing games with us, and we can play proper games with them. I love Cluedo (and Harry Potter Cluedo pretty good as an alternative), Ingenious, Articulate (we do play junior version of this with the kids), Uno, etc etc.

We've just started to teach DS Canasta, will be going on to Mah-Jong and hopefully bridge and Solo soon!

Cheap, fun entertainment!

BooToYouToo · 08/05/2011 20:12

Is Underground Ernie still popular with pre-schoolers? Whatever you do DO NOT buy the board game, it gets top marks for tedium.

Smallstuff - don't you find Mousetrap takes so long to set up the DC have wandered off?

Played Pictionary with my DC (9 and 6) recently. Had to pass on some of the abstract subjects but had forgotten how much I loved it. Must get Rapidough, sounds similar.

maddiemostmerry · 08/05/2011 20:14

Another vote for Cranium games here. Balloon lagoon would be great for your age group.

PandaG · 08/05/2011 20:20

oh, our DC got given lego Creationary recently. While I like lego Harry Potter, and Shave a Sheep is fun, Creationary makes me want to poke my eyes out with a blunt instrument - very tedious and slow. Concept is good, but is so slow to play.

Smallstuff · 08/05/2011 20:22

Bootoyoutoo...no I tie them to the chairs!!!! I change the rules so the get a bit to build every time they move....they love putting it together!! We have N old version whichnis a bit less 'plasticky' than the current version.
Rapidough is really good. It has easier and harder cards so you can tailor it... It's still hard tho!!!,

BornToYolk · 08/05/2011 20:24

YABU. I would much rather play Snakes and Ladders than play "shopkeepers" or "birthday party" again. I find them much more fun than those endless imaginary games. It's a lot easier to say to DS "right, one game of Snakes and Ladders, then I have to wash up" than "lets play shopkeepers for a bit, then I have to wash up".
I am shit at imaginary games Blush

I can't wait until he's old enough for Trivial Pursuits...

rowingboat · 08/05/2011 20:50

I'm in a cold sweat at the mention of board games. Shock

fedupandfifty · 08/05/2011 20:52

I taught my DD to play Solitaire on a (wet) caravan holiday when she was 7. Didn't get a peep out of her for days!!

PercyPigPie · 08/05/2011 20:58

'Mummy, can we play Mousetrap' sends shivers down my spine. 'Yes, darling. As long as you don't mind taking approximately 3 weeks to set the board up' - [anger]

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 08/05/2011 21:01

Ooh, must get my solitaire game out of the loft. They're bound to lose the marbles though. Thinking about it that is my biggest gripe with games, keeping all the pieces together, it's fine when we sit and play together as we can put it away at the end, it is more of a problem when DD decides the little blue counters from such and such game would make ideal plates for her dolls.