to HATE children's board games?

[ILoveDrKarl]

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"....

Ha ha Pious, yes we just call it SSSHHHH! but they did learn it at a friends and like to say the full name.

Off to look at this 'coppit' one online now - never heard of it.

I really like Qwirkle Cubes, bananagrams, boggle slam (card game), labyrinth... Also just ordered shakespell and yahtzee.

Anyone with DCs who like a bit of maths (or who like dice games) I really recommend cosmic cows!

DD1's (nearly 6) favourite game is hangman at the moment. You only need a pen and paper. We have to play about four rounds before bedtime. She beat me with "Hippo" last night

I was going to say Coppit too - it's the only one I actually enjoy playing with my 5 yr old - better with lots of people playing.

The Hungry Caterpillar we have - I'm not sure if we don't understand it either but the version we play is mind numbingly boring.

Now I know some of you may think this is sad.
We just stayed in a hotel in Fuertaventura. There was a special games room with 15 proper card tables with low hanging lights. It even had little side tables for drinks. It was full every single night of families with children ranging from about 9 t0 19 sat around playing card games. The Germans all seemed to be playing the same game which I didn't recognise and the Brits tended to traditional cards or Uno. My DSs are 13 and 15 and insisted we play in there every night.
(Bet they told their friends they were out clubbing though)

That sounds bloody brilliant inthesticks!

Right, I am SO dispatching all the Orchard Toys stuff, plus Buckaroo, Hungry Hippos et all off to the next school jumble sale ... meanwhile I'm updating my Amazon wishlist with all sorts of fun stuff. I just need to find something we all like - currently DH is threatening to take the portable DVD player camping with us, and that is just NOT ON.

Get Rummikub!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The day I get Rummikub is the day I complete my metamorphosis into my own mother.

I am trying to use games aimed at adults like carcasonne and jungle speed and blokus and niagra (bought from board game geek web sites ) that my children can understand and play but still have some challenge for me so they are not tedious in the same way or hours long like monopoly.

Risk is a great one for older DC's.

Mine would happily play that, Monopoly, Cluedo and Poker than anything else.

Jungle speed rocks!

DS was given a "Toy Story, Lost & Found" game for his birthday - It is the most convoluted load of bollocks I have ever come across. It's apparently suitable for 4+, but how any child of 4, or even 5 or 6 is supposed to take on board all the bizarre rules/actions/point of the game is beyond me - I struggled!

I do love Cranium though - best game ever.

Do people really like board game? I've never liked any of then much. As for card games - aghh!!. Just reminds me of games involving my mother, who was a very keen card player and still is at age 86. I was always useless and could never remember which cards had been played etc. My mother, who was usually very loving and supportive, could barely conceal her impatience with me during card games. Luckily for my mother my sisters played cards much better than I did.

We did have some fun famiily games of monopoly,cluedo etc but I was always the least keen to play really and still don't like them now.

DS (6.8yrs) is completely uninterested in most board games. He likes the idea and will play a board game once or twice but generally never wants to play it again. He NEVER suggests playing either a board game or a jigsaw (which I would like doing sometimes). In fact Ds has completed exactly one jigsaw with me in his life and that was a couple of months ago.

Despite my dislike of board games, I can often be heard vainly suggesting a board game to ds on the occasions I agree to play with him. This is because I am desperately trying to avoid wrestling, play fighting, making up/telling stories, playing with gogs, legom other various alien,superhero, monster figures any of which ds would always rather play.

Valiumred - if only my son WOULD play monopoly - I would be a very happy mum, then I could teach him how to cheat play board games properly.

But he has only ever been interested in Dr who and frustration. Very low attention threshhold has my lad.

I love monopoly

I think we should definitely get Carcasonne. Then we could play that with our geeky friends instead of them teaching me the rules to Shithead for the 37,253rd time, only for me to forget them AGAIN the moment I'm sober.

Ah I love shithead :o we played it on holiday. A lot. I am awesome.

Not that it involves much skill really but shhhhh

I'm now off to search some of the newly mentioned games on amazon!

Ah great. Just added £70 worth of games to my amazon wishlist, thanks for that

I like Uno. Dh, having recently played it for 8hrs straight on a transatlantic flight where he sat with ds2, probably not so much!

I also like Frustration or whatever it's called now. It reminds me on being a child and I can still picture the box which proudly announced the 'popomatic'!

I hate Monopoly so much that I have played it only once with my dcs. Have a sister who was obsessed with it as a child so am still scarred from being forced to play.

Despite this we have 4 bloody versions of it !

Pictureka is a good idea, but the rules (ie which colour card to play) are just odd - not well thought out at all and quite boring. We just play random rounds of it now.

What's Shithead?

Found Coppit in a charity shop for 50p today - result!

Shithead is a card game. I guess if you lose then you're the shithead, or something like that!

I like Uno, drafts, snap, Mancala. Most the rest are stressful in some way.

Monopoly Deal (card game version of Monopoly) is much better than the real thing.

Can't stand Cludo, especially the Harry Potter one.