Last night I finally relented to Peter that I would teach him how to play a new board game. I taught he and Kate how to play Clue. I have great memories of long games of Clue with my friend Valerie as a kid, but I wasn't prepared for this. He sets it up already sure that the revolver has to be the murder weapon simply because he thinks it's cool. He drags Kate from a good book and begs her to play. As they get the hang of the game, it eventually becomes clear that the suspect was either Miss Scarlet or Mrs. Peacock, in the living room with the candlestick. Peter becomes so excited that he knows what 3 cards are in the envelope that he hustles his pawn to the pool to make his accusation. Questionably, I looked at him knowing he couldn't be sure of Miss Scarlet because she is the big question mark on my radar. I warn him it's too early. He gets the first two right and is devastated that he has chosen wrong in Miss Scarlet. Hence we have begun ...."Fight in A Box". Usually Monopoly caused huge amounts of discontent in my childhood home as my brothers cheated and stole their way to victory. Yes that's you Michael and Glenn. But this anger was more from personal failure. Peter's self confidence usually carries him to great heights, but he was defeated by his own misjudgment. Kate and I finish the game and implicate Mrs. Peacock correctly as Peter whines in the corner. Peter's misery now has spun into a tornado of despair and sure enough, Kate throws the knife right at him telling him to shush up while Peter picks up the revolver and pretends to shoot it at Kate. I'm thinking, "I have such beautiful children." I also think that maybe next time we should play a game with no lethal weapons. To make things worst, I start to laugh at Peter for his behavior which makes him even more angry and he storms off to bed. What a great family game. Thanks for nothing Parker Brothers! So the dusts settles and I go to tuck Peter in. To my surprise, I see on his cheek, that he has written "I stink" with his label maker. Now I feel bad because he feels bad, but not so bad because I pull out my camera. I guess this is just one of the many lessons that Peter will learn in life's big game. We at least we need to think before we come to a conclusion. Your just not going to win every time and we need to learn to lose gracefully. Either way, mom will have her camera ready to catch the conclusion of the game, win or lose.
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