The Board Game Family stops by

This week, I’ll shut my pie hole and let another dad talk about one on one time with his daughter.  Here’s Trent from The Board Game Family talking a little bit about one of his favorite Daddy-Daughter Dates.

-Scott-

Daddy-Daughter dates are fantastic. Getting out with your daughter is terrific one-on-one time.

But no one says you have to go out to have a date. In our house, a lot of our Daddy-Daughter time is spent around a table – a game table to be precise.

We love play board games and card games in our family. We’ve found that board games offer a great way to spend quality face-to-face time with each other.

With 3 boys and 1 girl in our family, Brooke gets that special daughter attention and she loves it. She turns 12 at the end of the summer and is at a great age for doing things together. Since her interests are expanding (so is her time with friends) it’s important to still make time to spend with her. So pulling a game off the shelf to play together is a great way to keep our relationship strong.

She’s also surprised me this last year in the types of board games she’s wanted to play with me. For the most part she’s enjoyed games on the lighter side without a lot of strategy. Games that have more elements of luck have been fun to her because they level the playing field. And board games that have fun themes, like food and animals, or let you act silly are particularly appealing to her.

So I was in for a surprise when I pulled out a new game for a grand adventure with my 3 sons – Defenders of the Realm. It’s a cooperative board game set in a fantasy world with wizards, elves, dwarves, rangers, and evil foes to vanquish.

But lo and behold, the one that loved it right from the start was Brooke!

Brooke has never been interested in anything fantasy themed in the past. Fantasy themed games hold no interest for her and the same has been true for any other dice rolling combat type games. So my assumption from the very beginning was that she’d have no interest in Defenders of the Realm. Thus, my only thoughts were centered on playing it with my boys.

But when I set up the game for the first time, Brooke walked in to see what I was up to. Then she noticed that there were a couple female character roles and asked me what the game was about. Next thing I know, she’d picked a character card and pulled up a chair.

So we went through what she could do on her turn, what her special skills were and we were off and rolling – literally. And of course right from the start she was knocking down minions left and right and worrying about not rolling high enough numbers. And as the evil generals started advancing she was totally into the game – concerned that we wouldn’t get to them in time.

Although our first play of the game ended in defeat for us, Brooke was anxiously asking when we’d get to play it again. Of course, I don’t think she would have ever hit that level of interest if I hadn’t been playing board games with her since she was little.

I’ve always felt that games provided a great way to connect with kids (and to stay young ourselves). Getting down on the floor to play a game with them that they’re interested in is time well spent – even
if it does involve princesses and tiaras.

In fact, we think board games are such a good way for parents to build relationships with their children that we started a website dedicated to that very thing.

We post video and written reviews of fun family board games, card games, and party games. The unique aspect of our video reviews is that it’s the kids doing the reviews. They’re the ones talking about the games so parents can see what their own kids might enjoy. And our most prolific game reviewer is our daughter Brooke.

If you’d like to see what board games are her favorites, take a look at our game reviews list where you can click on her name at the top of the table to sort the reviews by her rating. (You’ll see that she has quite a long list of 5 out of 5 and 4.5 out of 5.)

So next time you’re looking for a Daddy-Daugher Date idea, grab a game and have some fun.

- Trent

www.TheBoardGameFamily.com

P.S. And if you haven’t tried a cooperative board game before (where you work together as a team to defeat the game), we’ve got a great recommendation for you that’s great with daughters – Forbidden
Island.

Daddy-Daughter Date #41 – Chuck E. Cheese

Time: 1-2 hours
Cost: $
Recurrence: Once or twice a year
Age: 2-10
Impact:

There’s probably going to be some big hubbub about me referencing the actual establishment’s name, but I see it as free advertising for them.  And with ALL the readers I have out there, I think they’re the winners in the end, really.

“We’ll take it” – CEC Entertainment, Inc

Chuck E. Cheese is another iconic kid destination that even single people or older couples understand is strictly a kids restaurant.  There is no other way around it.  It’s all fun and games, even when someone gets hurt.  No….not really.  But where else can you find that many games for kids and adults and still get some place to put your stuff down and eat?

A few comments on the food.  It’s not that great.  If you can, I would suggest eating ahead of time.  The pizzas are an absolute miracle within a culture that has seemingly tried to improve this dish in so many ways.  It’s actually found a way to made it worse, yet still charge a premium.  That’s brand loyalty and recognition, my friends.  If you want to have authentic Chuck E. Cheese pizza, you can make it at home.  Take a tortilla and leave it out on the counter for 2 days.  After it’s good and stale, take a ketchup packet and spread it evenly across the surface of your tortilla.  To top it off, find the most off-brand mozzarella flavored gum-based product and make a fine coating upon your ketchup.  Microwave for thirty second and viola: a $16 pizza.  I’m not a huge eater, but I could eat two of these on my own.  And the salad bar isn’t going to be much a smorgasbord either.  If you like a lot of different colors in your salad, you’re not going to get it as most of the vegetables are just a slight hue off of white, from the lettuce to the tomatoes and the carrots.  So, try and minimize the damage and the recurrent hunger pains and eat something to fill you up before you go.  Oh, you’ll still get the pizza for your daughter, but she likes that stuff.

Relevant meme is relevant

On to the games.  I would chat with your daughter ahead of time as to the whole “ticket” scam.  You play one game of skee ball and out come a few tickets.  She then runs the tickets over to the Prize Table only to have you talk her through how many tickets she needs to get some of the prizes.  In some cases, it’s going to take a few months worth of skee ball.  A good route would be to talk through what she really wants to “win”, if there is anything at all.  If there isn’t, AWESOME!  But when she does want to win something, do some quick math with her to talk through how she is going to earn it.  She might have to pony up some of her own money to get her to that stuffed Chuck E. Cheese.  Work it out ahead of time, and that will save you all the tantrums in the world.

But play some of the actual video games with her too.  Most likely, she’s going to need your help to pull some of them off.   Sure, she could play on her own, but playing a Big Buck Hunter or motorcycle game with Dad helping out is so much fun to her.  If she’s big enough, play a little air hockey and compete a bit.  If she gets frustrated, don’t make it a big deal, just move on to the next game.  And who gets too irritated playing air hockey?  Remember, this isn’t college, so you don’t need to bring that intensity.  Visually and verbally taunting your daughter after your win is probably poor tact, even in an establishment with as snooty of an air as Chuck E. Cheese.  That was sarcasm.

Exactly.

Lastly, don’t forget the big mouse himself and his band of animatronic friends.  Weird, yes, but not to a kid.  When that teenager dressed up as Chuck E. comes out of those doors, just suspend the believe for a bit and let your daughter high five it up.  Yes, that costume has not been washed since 1998 and is probably crawling with some form of bird lice, but she’s excited to see that character in uniform.  Unless there is a birthday party taking up the whole area, sit down for a few minutes from the action to watch the robots in action.  The music isn’t the best, but that’s another thing they haven’t changed since 1998.

You have to admit that there are far too many similarities with these guys….

When you’re done with the tokens, you’re done.  That’s the best way to leave on a good note and with as little push back as possible.  The whole thing is an absolute sensory overload with the lights, food, games, screaming kids, and music.  Your daughter is probably going to be ready for break to.  So when she says, “Dad, can we go?” GO.  Leave on that high note that way she’ll want to come back with you.  And if she wants to come back to THAT, it’s not about that place, it’s about YOU.

DID IT! with David B.

“Chuck E. Cheese is just one of those dates that just has to be done.  But then, you’ve got to lose her while you’re in there!  It was crazy.  She doesn’t remember now; she was only three.  I was scared to death.  

We’re going down to see Micheal (her brother) for the first time because he was born in the hospital.  So we went to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner, and I LOST HER. IN CHUCK E. CHEESE.  For like, 15 to 20 minutes, I could not find her. It was not a good moment!  I mean, it’s totally a fun idea, but not the way I did it.

It’s funny because we had a great time, but that’s all I can remember.  Like I said, she doesn’t remember and her memories of Chuck E. Cheese are all of games and prizes.  So I guess I didn’t screw up too bad.”

Thanks for reading and thanks for being a dad…

-Scott-