Would You Rather...?

I grew up in a game-playing family, from board games to card games to word games. We played Monopoloy and Clue and poker and gin rummy and hangman and jotto and everything else. Andy did too (although possibly to a lesser extent), so it's no surprise that we play a lot of games in our own family. Currently we all especially like Trouble, Sorry, Clue Jr., Uno, mancala, go fish, memory, bingo, and war.

We also play lots of "talking" games like 20 Questions, usually at the dinner table or in the car. Our favorite variation is Animal 20 Questions (Does it have fur? Does it swim? Does it live in the jungle?), and Julie and I frequently play Disney 20 Questions (Is it a ride we went on? Is it something we ate there? Is it a character we met?). But the game we play most often is "Would You Rather...?" which all started when Steph was dying to get her ears pierced. I asked her if she'd rather never get her ears pierced or have to kiss [insert name of truly repulsive boy in her class here] every day for 2 weeks. She sacrificed her lips for those earrings, which was as strong a commitment to that wish as I could imagine Now we all play. I nearly brought Andy to tears with "Would you rather never have coffee again or never have alcohol again?" (after much soul-searching, he chose no coffee, figuring he'd miss the flavor but he could get his caffeine elsewhere) and Pete gave him "Would you rather never have ketchup again or never have mustard again?" (he chose no mustard, although it greatly pained him to do so, because he could nearly always substitute ketchup or mayo for mustard, but there's really nothing you can sub for ketchup on something like fries).

Julie's still a little unclear on the concept, so she'll say something like, "Would you radder [sic] have no house or have no house and no clothes?" (Hmm, let me get back to you on that one.) But the other two get it, and we end up fielding questions about reading a book vs. watching a movie, pool vs. ocean, ice cream vs. brownies, and so on. Fun.

Comments

[Tammy]

No house AND no clothes! Definitely.

[semmens]

Another board game we recently discovered is Sequence. Quick (I rarely can handle the marathon that is Monopoly or Risk), and it depends as much on luck as skill. Kind of a combo of poker and bingo, and I forget how old your kids are but ds8 had no problem with it. Very addictive!

[Karan]

Get a game called "Apples to Apples" It's a blast and even though our daughter wasn't quite old enough to understand some of the words/phrases included in the game play, she played it well and had fun. There is also a junior version.

[Debbie]

In our family, we play a version of 20 questions called "Friend, Relative, or Famous Person" that I learned from my aunt when we took a long trip together when I was little. My 5 year old LOVES this game, although she tends to pick the same friends over and over again! I can usually narrow it down with just a few questions (girl/boy? adult/child? do they live in (insert state)? but a few times she has gotten creative - it took me awhile to guess when she chose GOD! We will have to try Animal 20 questions for some variety! Thanks for the idea! :)