For those of you with children (or nieces, nephews, small cousins, … those of you that are in any position to play games with children), at what age do you stop automatically letting them win, if ever?
I have a 10 year old. I don’t remember ever letting him win anything organized against me. I’ll sometimes cheat if he is beating me at a video game.
I quit letting the oldest win when he was around 5.
We were having races in the front yard, and I blocked him so that #2 could win. He looked at me with those very serious 5-year old’s eyes, and said:
OK, dad, we’ll let #3 win next and then it’ll be your turn.
Joe
I voted for over 13. I didn’t stop until I was in my 40s.
I generally shoot for a level that’s always competitive. As the kids get older/more experience/better with the game I’m not really pulling punches anymore.
Except for Candyland. I never stopped cheating at that game to make it end sooner. Thankfully they’re all teenagers now so I no longer have to palm the character cards so an ill timed Mr. Mint doesn’t send the game into the fourth hour.
I never let them win. On the more complicated games that involve choices (like monopoly) I’ll point out the best choice to them, but that’s about it.
I never let my kids win. However, I always have scaled the level of my effort to match theirs. For example, if we’re playing a game where strategic planning will give you a big advantage, I might deliberately turn off that part of my brain while I’m playing. I’ll just make the moves that give me the best short-term gain. That way we’re still competing, but I don’t have an unfair advantage.
My Dad stopped letting me when when I started talking crap. I think that’s about right as soon as the kid can brag about winning he stops winning until he’s good enough to deserve to brag.
I went with 7 since that’s when my smart mouth developed.
I was playing the third game in a row with my then three year old. I was about to win, and end it all. Instead I drew fucking plumpy. And I said “Fucking Plumpy.” With genuine anger. To my three year old. Who was appropriately shocked. I don;t normally swear, and I apologized for my language.
About five hundred turns later he draws Plumpy. He throws it down in disgust and says in a cute three year old voice, “Fucking Plumpy.” At which point the game was called on account of angry wife.
So around our house he is now known as f-ing plumpy. And I do not play Candyland anymore. Which is fine, because Plumpy is an asshole.
How do you cheat at Candyland? When you say palm the cards, do you mean you hide them and just pretend to pull them out?
Each time one of those characters cards come out while putting it in the discard pile I’d palm it and keep it out of the deck. That way after through the deck once there were no cards to send you backwards - you’d only be moving forward.
It didn’t give either player an advantage, but it keeps the game from going on and on as you get near the top then go back to near the beginning.
HeadNinja, just saw your note - I totally know the feeling but don’t even have a story that good to show for it.
Same. This is how my dad was. When I was small, he’d play basketball on his knees, but he sure wouldn’t let me win. By the time I was a teenager he was calling me for a foul on every play. I think he may still claim that I’ve never beaten him, which would be a lie.
The only time I let the kiddo win is if bedtime is approaching and I want the game to end. And really, this is usually because she “cheats” to make the games last longer: “Mama, you’re almost out of cards! Have some of mine!” Gee, thanks! :rolleyes:
(Never thought about yanking the character cards from Candyland, though. That’s brilliant!)
I’ve got one friend whose father never stopped letting her win at anything, and she’s really unbearable to play any sort of game with. Talk about your sore loser!
I voted 11, but for my nieces it was 10. Youngest niece, anyway. I had just showed her how to play Texas hold 'em, and I was nice to her at first. But when she started kicking my ass, I was playing for blood. She still kicked my ass.
Did you know it’s impossible to tell if someone’s bluffing if they don’t really understand the rules of the game?
I’ll probably keep letting my kids win until they’re capable of beating me at whatever game we’re playing. I’m guessing that, for board games, that’ll be around 5 or 6 years old and for physical activity, it’ll be 10-ish, possibly later (at 4, my son is already a very fast runner, with lots of endurance - the type I used to have during marathon training).
I don’t let them win anymore, but I still occasionally make a suboptimal move at “Sorry”.
Last week I was playing Wii Super Mario Kart with my 8 year old, fully expecting to have to race a bit poorly so I didn’t completely wipe her out. Little bitch smoked me. She’s been practicing behind my back or something.
I may have pretended to let my kids outrun or catch me while running around the yard, but I’ve never intentionally let them win at games. Whether it’s Wii* or Candyland or Sorry or Go Fish, I play an honest game and try to win. On games that are pure luck (like Candyland) they beat me often enough.
*My 3 year old is a Wii Bowling savant. She bowls with a sidehand delivery and no apparent aim and averages about 5 strikes or spares per game. She’s only beaten me once but she had a score of something like 185 when she did it.
When my kids have ever won against me, they knew for certain they had accomplished something. They only had that feeling because they could count on the fact that I always did my best to win, regardless of their age. They are 8, 11, and 13 now.
To treat them differently just seems wrong for some reason, but it could simply be perpetuation of how I was raised. Regardless, I’m glad my parents handled things that way and hope my kids will feel the same when they are my age.
My grandmother, who was a devout Baptist, told my aunt and cousins that she was too sick to go to church one Sunday. They finished a little early and went by her house to check on her. She was practicing air hockey. She lied to them about being sick so that she could stay home and practice, and beat her grandkids. This is the family I was born into.
When it comes to physical games (backyard baseball, soccer), I take it easy on the kids until they’re out of toddlerhood. When it comes to board games and card games, all bets are off. My husband laughs at me trying to scam my 7 year old with bad Monopoly deals. My 7 year old, though, doesn’t have any problem beating us regularly at Monopoly or poker, and sometimes even chess. I’m still the reigning Boggle champion.
I generally don’t let Sophie “win” at anything, though, like many, I may not play my best.
I don’t give any quarter in video games or UNO, however. That shit’s gotta be earned. 