How to Play Games with Twins

Yesterday found me in a position I never expected to be in: playing Candyland and Chutes and Ladders at the same time! Sis loves Candyland; Bud, Chutes and Ladders. Neither wanted to play with the other; both wanted to play with me. So we tried. And it worked out okay except when it was my turn in both games. But they were good about alerting me, "MOMMY!!! It's your turn! Spin/Pick a card!!!"

Heaven help me. I don't even like games. But I gamely (hee hee, couldn't resist) played along. And as I did so, I wondered what in the world I was supposed to be teaching them. Games, in theory, are character-building, wholesome family fun, and educational--but how do you make them that way? Sure, taking turns. And, yes, good sportsmanship. And the specific rules of the game, as well as game culture in general right (how to count spaces, how to take a card from the top of a stack). But what does that look like in practice? I know that when Bud keeps moving vertically instead of horizontally on the board, I should keep helping him count the right way. And when Sis would skip to any yellow, per se, instead of the next one, I would point to her destined square. I also tried, when either of us got a bad draw--a card or spin that sent us backwards--to take it in stride, use our "oh, well, but let's keep trying" attitude. But what about when I won Chutes and Ladders (and was restrained in my celebration, of course) and Bud kept going (to be a good sport) but kept landing on all those damned chutes in the last row? He was discouraged. I couldn't figure out how to cheat. And besides that's not the point, right?? So he wanted to quit. But do you allow quitting? That's not very sportsmanslike. But if you force him to play, then really, haven't you missed the real point of the game, which is fun?

That's when I realized I was in over my head--not because I was playing two games at once but because I'm not a game player and don't know how to teach sportsmanship and game culture. And why is that, exactly? I know I loved Candyland as a kid. And I remember playing all sorts of card games--Old Maid, Go Fish, Battle, Slap Jack, even 21--plus checkers and even backgammon with my next-door neighbor. When did I start hating to play games? Really absolutely loathing the experience? My mom loves games, plays all the time at home and at the bay house, particularly card games like bridge but also (now religiously) Mahjong, Rummy, Spoons, Dictionary, I couldn't even name all the games that are out there to play. But I've never seen my dad play anything; neither, I would venture, do any of his family. Is it genetic? My mom's whole side of the family, for generations, plays games. Am I too competitive? Do I not like the good-natured teasing and smack-talk that always seem to go with social game-playing? I would rather go for my annual pap smear than have to play games in a group (it's quicker, at least). But I wouldn't say I'm by nature an anti-social person. I would sit around and chitchat with the same group of people.

So, what am I going to do? Obviously, there are a lot more games on my horizon, though hopefully one at a time (because isn't being a good team player a game-thing?). I think I can survive actually having to play, at least with the kids, at least for now, but how do I mold them into good game players when I'm not?