Heather in Neverland Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 As I sat tonight playing candyland with my daughter for the gajillionth time I started to think about how many times I have played this game since I became a parent. I couldn't even begin to calculate it. And I only have 3 kids. I think I am going to lose it if I have to play that game one more time!!! How do those of you with lots of kids not go bonkers playing candyland (or whatever) year after year after year after year.... What game or activity have you been doing with your kids repeatedly for so many years you feel like you might go screaming down the street if you have to do it one more time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luckymama Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 I paid my older kids to play Candyland and similar games with their little sister :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer in MI Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Exactly. I didn't pay mine, but the olders definitely help with the little in that department! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KungFuPanda Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 I only have two kids and by the second child I was stacking the deck so the kid would win faster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 I have a dear friend who was my homeschool mentor. Her four kids were older and done with elementary school when I was just starting. I remember her practically throwing all those teddy bear manipulatives and Singapore books and Bob books at me. She was so happy she was never going to have to teach first or second or third grade math again. She practically danced as they left the house. She was a fantastic home educator, but she was DONE with the k-3 stage by then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Oh, I dump all that "fun" stuff onto the older kids, lol. To them, it's still kind of fun. I never liked those games the *first time around! Little kid "school work", otoh, is my favorite. I'd love to ditch all protractors and scientific calculators for permanent mounds of counting cubes and fake money. What drives me nuts now is the potty training, piles of action figures, broken crayons, and pieces of fruit left in random places. I'd also be happy to never again lean over a bathtub to scrub another person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alef Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Yep, the older kids take over many of these types of interactions. When I was a teenager I really enjoyed reading to my younger siblings, I think we got through several Redwall books one summer and had a great time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 I sold candyland and bought quirkle this year. Clifford the Big Red Dog and Thomas are sending me over the edge. 11 years of listening to them.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Peregrine Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Memory. Gets old being beaten by a 6 yo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeegal Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 :leaving:Uh, my kids tend to come in groups; I don't play games with them. So no endless games of Candy Land or Monopoly or Clue or... Diapers... ugh... the little ones were potty trained earlier than their older siblings as a result. Right now it's phonics. I really don't want to do Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons; we usually start there before moving on to Phonics Pathways. I've checked out Ordinary Parent's Guide to Reading to see if I enjoy it, taped the cute little poems for Ordinary Parent's Guide to Reading to the fridge so the little ones learn their sounds, and magnetic letters will arrive from Rainbow Resource tomorrow. The little ones enjoy different TV shows than their older siblings did. I ran across The Brave Little Toaster and my teens were beside themselves in angst. They pleaded and begged me not to introduce the little ones to the series... :smilielol5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Um_2_4 Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Oh, I dump all that "fun" stuff onto the older kids, lol. To them, it's still kind of fun. I never liked those games the *first time around! Little kid "school work", otoh, is my favorite. I'd love to ditch all protractors and scientific calculators for permanent mounds of counting cubes and fake money. What drives me nuts now is the potty training, piles of action figures, broken crayons, and pieces of fruit left in random places. I'd also be happy to never again lean over a bathtub to scrub another person. This totally!!! :iagree: (especially the bath part :lol: ) Yes! This! Part of the older 2's school work is to read aloud picture books with the twins. I can listen to them reading AND the littles are entertained. I just found this game:http://www.amazon.com/Mattel-37092-Ker-Plunk-Game/dp/B0000205X3/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1393700319&sr=1-1&keywords=kerplunk that all 4 love to play. And I love teaching the younger grades too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 I always say I stopped at 2 kids because I refuse to teach long division a third time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gil Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Fortunately, my boys are close in age and happy to play games with one another. They bend the rules and cheat so much that its easier if I don't play with them. Personally, I refuse to play Candyland!!! I hate that game so much that if it were a person I wouldn't be able to contain myself and I'd probably be arrested for a hate crime against it or something...We owned that game for less than one summer and I was almost happier to see it donated than I was to hold my sons when they were born. Seriously, that game got deep under my skin! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lavender's green Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 I have only one sister, but we were raised closely with our cousins. I enjoyed teaching things to a cousin who was two years younger than me. Not so much with my sister (four years younger) and another cousin (five years younger). But I absolutely adored a cousin who was 8 years younger. We could play little-kid games and do counting and the alphabet for hours upon hours. I think our age difference was just right. There was no competition from being too close together, and I was old enough to seem a bit adult-ish to her, but I was young enough to have fun with all that stuff, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica_in_Switzerland Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 The "why?" stage. Shoot me now!!! Brushing hair. Please, oh please, let this baby be a boy so I can just buzz his head! Baby food. Each of my kids has spent less time than the previous kid eating anything "baby specific." Brown Bear, Brown Bear, I don't care what you see anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 ds2 doesn't know who Thomas the Tank Engine is. He's never watched Sesame Street or Barney. He will never, ever, ever do any sort of craft or science project involving liquid laundry starch. I don't care that all I have to do is click on the "buy it now" button at Amazon instead of cancelling school for days at a time while I drive around looking for the stuff, it would require years of therapy and very heavy medication to get me to stop curling up in a foetal position and sobbing when I see those three horrible words on a list of "common household ingredients you probably already have around the house or can easily pick up the next time you go to the store." No. Just no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 I paid my older kids to play Candyland and similar games with their little sister :DNot paid, lol but it is true that out big kids do a lot with our middle kids and little kids. We do a lot with our little kids we didn't do with the offers and other things the big kids took over. Our five year old learned to read shortly before she turned three because our oldest daughter right phonics instruction was "fun." (Thank God, truly.) Many of our littles can play chess because middles needed someone to play with. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
readwithem Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 After babysitting way too much as a teenager, there were two games I said would never enter my house as a parent - Candy Land and Hi Ho Cherrio. My 22 yo dd still sarcastically jokes that she had a rotten childhood because she never played those games :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttichen Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 At least in Candyland you can sneak those awful cards out and slide them under the board so the game doesn't go on forever. Chutes and Ladders is way worse -- no way to cheat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 The book " Fox in Socks" had to mysteriously go missing. " I can't blab such blibber-blubber! My tongue isn't made of rubber!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 ds2 doesn't know who Thomas the Tank Engine is. He's never watched Sesame Street or Barney. He will never, ever, ever do any sort of craft or science project involving liquid laundry starch. I don't care that all I have to do is click on the "buy it now" button at Amazon instead of cancelling school for days at a time while I drive around looking for the stuff, it would require years of therapy and very heavy medication to get me to stop curling up in a foetal position and sobbing when I see those three horrible words on a list of "common household ingredients you probably already have around the house or can easily pick up the next time you go to the store." No. Just no. Lol! This is how I feel about Rock Tumblers and plaster volcanoes. Run away. Run far, far away! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mergath Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 :lol: I only have one kid, and I was so done with Candyland after about the third time we played it. After that, we just didn't do board games until dd could play Catan Jr. That, I can tolerate. Or Monopoly Jr. Basically any game that isn't a variation of "Roll, move. Roll, move," over and over, I can handle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gil Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 At least in Candyland you can sneak those awful cards out and slide them under the board so the game doesn't go on forever. Chutes and Ladders is way worse -- no way to cheat! Sure there is! Well, not cheat per se, but definitely speed up the process. At the start of each game each player roles the die--that is their factor. Then every time they roll during game play they multiply their roll by their outcome and move that number of squares. So, if I roll 5 as my factor, every turn I take, I multiply by 5. If you land on a square that is a multiple of your factor, then thats bonus and you get to roll again. Thats how we played it here. You can also use two dice--either to get outcomes up to twelve or as a factor dice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erica in OR Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 There are certain things I just won't do, except for once in a blue moon and only if I'm in a prime mood. Candyland is one of those. Eventually they can play with older siblings. Certain picture books that if they're going to be read aloud, it's going to be by dad or an older sibling. Erica in OR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I had to throw Candyland away three times because people kept gifting it to us. Evil game. On Charlie and Lola, there's an episode where Lola is going to make a new friend and she's excited to play certain games with him, but she really hopes he won't be lame and like games like "Round and Round. Because it's so boring, Charlie. You just go round. And round. And round." And I'm with Lola. No Round and Round. Or Candyland. So, basically, I have only one age of children, but there are some experiences so inane, I wasn't even willing to do them the first time around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KungFuPanda Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 The book " Fox in Socks" had to mysteriously go missing. " I can't blab such blibber-blubber! My tongue isn't made of rubber!" I didn't get rid of it, but I flat out refused to read The Diggingest Dog again. I hated it and I'm still mad at the Dr Seuss Club for sending me a non-Seuss book. Jerks. My kids liked this book and still tease me about blacklisting it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NASDAQ Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I have four closely-spaced kids, and I tease that they like to BYOP -- Bring Your Own Playgroup. They play with each other. I never play board games. Play board games with each other. So the answer is, "I deal with having more children by being a worse mother than you are" ;) But I have been nursing for nearly eight years without a break of a single day. And I don't like teaching phonics, and I've only done it twice. I hate listening to beginning readers. And the entire stage of life between 2-4 can bite me. Not cute like a baby, and not a reasonable human being, either. I don't know why G-d decreed that children should walk and talk before they have sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 By kid number four, I refused to play Candyland or Monopoly. I have cored and sliced enough apples to fill the Grand Canyon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 "The time has come. The time is now. Just go, go GO! I don't care how. You can go by foot. You can go by cow. Marvin K. Mooney will you please go now!" Enough said. 20 years on I can still recite it from memory. Shudder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bree Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I hide the games in my closet or take them to my moms so she can play them with the kids ;) then again my mom is a board game addict and doesn't mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swellmomma Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 easy, dd6 gets her fill of candyland at the afterschool care with the other kids and staff. I however play uno a dozen times everyday at daycare so no one plays that at home. The rest I don't really notice. Maybe because I have worked in daycare for 25 years, I was already doing a lot of this everyday all day before I had kids and was numb to it by then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibraryLover Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 What a depressing thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibraryLover Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 What a depressing thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in Neverland Posted March 2, 2014 Author Share Posted March 2, 2014 What a depressing thread. Really? Because the responses are making me literally laugh out loud! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I also pretty much refused to play Candyland even with my first. That's what Grandma is for. :) And now older siblings. For school, I've changed our curriculum some so that I'm not bored with it for my third. We used FIAR which I loved with the first two but I could tell that I wasn't really putting much into planning it with the third so I'm doing other stuff with her that is newer to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rieshy Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Math U See. After my 3 oldest I gave it all away. I could simply not do it again. I especially could not teach some of their funkier methods again. Games? I think the trick is regular purging. Oooops, that game has gotten too beat up, let's donate it. I prefer straight up card games over anything in a box anyway. We learn a new card game every time my dad blows through town. It's the movies that I can't bear to watch again, luckily my husband still loves to sit and watch the classic movies with our youngest children. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indian summer Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I don't have a large family, but I grew up the youngest in a big one. My mom didn't play candy land type games with me, I played those with my siblings or friends. My mom had a couple of games she liked, like scrabble, that she would play with me. It's funny, it never even occurred to me to ask my parents to play a children's game. I only have three kids and I have played snakes and ladders and go fish too many times to count. But I don't feel bad about the ones I won't play (like Pokemon). I would play it, if I understood the game, but I just don't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indian summer Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 The "why?" stage. Shoot me now!!! Brushing hair. Please, oh please, let this baby be a boy so I can just buzz his head! Baby food. Each of my kids has spent less time than the previous kid eating anything "baby specific." Brown Bear, Brown Bear, I don't care what you see anymore. I agree with the first three. But Brown Bear in our house always gets a giggle. One of our pages fell out and dd, when she was 2 would 'read' the remaining page "sheep-dog"(half sheep page and half dog page). Not sure what that taught her about science, but it's so hilarious to us that I recorded her 'reading' this book the video gets all shaky at that part as I try to stifle my giggles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilma Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I tossed Candyland. Every single time either of my bigger girls played it someone cried. Often both girls cried, as their people got sent back or whatever. Every. Single. Time. So. My littler girls have never played Candyland. I like Zingo, so I'll play that. And kid games are generally for kids, as long as there are enough kids around to play them. And we definitely have enough kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilma Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Oh? And soccer - I'll always play soccer. Or go for a bike ride. So I really don't feel even remotely bad about not playing the games I hate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElaineJ Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 My struggle is that I just don't really like playing. period. If my youngest had his way, he would want me on the floor doing imaginative play with him all day long. I do some of that out of love and because I feel like it is the right thing to do by a child, but it takes a lot of effort sometimes. I adore my kids; it has nothing to do with them. I wish I was different in this area. Elaine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KungFuPanda Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 What a depressing thread. What a buzzkill post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maela Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 This thread has been fun to read. For me, as a board game lover, pretty much any game is fine. What kills me (and Dh) though is how LOOOOONG they each take to take their turn. Oh my gosh, just roll the die/spin the spinner!!! Then move your piece! Right after you roll! They always want to start talking, get up to get something, take a bite of food, etc. RIGHT when it's their turn. However, I love reading aloud, and I love watching movies I loved as a kid with my kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in Neverland Posted March 2, 2014 Author Share Posted March 2, 2014 I can (and have) watched the same episodes of Barney, Blue'sClues and Dora more times than I can count and repeatedly watched the same kids movies (I think I can quote every word of Nemo). That doesn't seem to bug me. But candyland... Oh how I hate candyland. And chutes and ladders. Aaahhhh!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swellmomma Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Thought of another one: "seat belts, so we can be safe" yup too much dora, and now this line is repeated by myself and all 4 kids everytime we get in the car. dd6 is the only Dora fan but she will watch and rewatch every dvd until they don't work anymore. As for this thread being depressing, get real. No one is saying they don't love parenting each child ect, but seriously if you thoroughly enjoy every minutae of little kid stuff you are either lieing or crazy. Because as much as we enjoy each child and still do the same stuff over and over again, I am sure glad I don't have to play "this little piggy" again until I have grandkids. And at that point it will be a pleasure again because I will be a fun gramma who only has to play that 1-2 times in a row, not 7,000 like my grandchild's parents will have to. It's okay to be bored to tears playing the same game, song, movie etc day after day for a dozen years (depending how many kids you have and how spaced apart they are of course). In my case, I played "this little piggy" at least a dozen times a day for 12 years, it is not depressing to be greatful to have at least a few years off from it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 After babysitting way too much as a teenager, there were two games I said would never enter my house as a parent - Candy Land and Hi Ho Cherrio. My 22 yo dd still sarcastically jokes that she had a rotten childhood because she never played those games :D Babysitting burned me out on Candyland, too. So I never bought it. My kids played an older version, snakes and something on their own last year at a friends house. They are fine. They thought it was fun and couldn't believe when I refused to play. I kind of liked hi ho Cheerio, but I only played it a few times as a babysitter, I'm sure I would hate it quickly now!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeegal Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 In my case, I played "this little piggy" at least a dozen times a day for 12 years, it is not depressing to be greatful to have at least a few years off from it. :smilielol5: It's a good thing I like "this little piggy." My oldest 3 would line-up for it. I'd do "this little piggy" with dd, and she'd go to the back of the line. I'd do "this little piggy" with ds#2, and he'd go to the back of the line. Then ds #1 and we were back to dd. Around and around and around and around for hours every morning. Good memories. :D My littlest two just aren't as impressed with "this little piggy" as their older siblings were. :crying: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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