A while ago, my husband and I decided to treat the kids to a 3D movie, complete with a large bucket of popcorn, a 32 oz. Coke and the kids’ choice of candy. One would think a simple outing for a family of four wouldn’t be a budget breaker. There I go assuming again.
After paying for the tickets alone, it dawned on me that with the money we had just spent, we were halfway to the cost of a new Blu-Ray player. Paying for treats had me squirming. Since my husband and I are not immune to the worries of this current recession, we decided to usher in the era of Family Game Night at home. “We can make our own fun for free!” I proclaimed.
Having spent many winter nights at my grandparents’ farm with no cable television and certainly no VCR, I can shake a mean Yahtzee cup. And my older brother schooled me more than once on the financial benefits of setting up hotels on Boardwalk and Park Place (which, as I recall, he always seemed to own). My husband also grew up in a family that eagerly gathers ‘round the table for games, cards and the like. Would we discover our kids had inherited some of these genes?
The following Friday night, my husband and I popped a big bowl of popcorn with the real popcorn popper, which made the kids marvel (“I thought you had to make popcorn in the microwave, mommy. Is this how they did it in the olden days?”), and made me feel old. Then we pulled out Candy Land.
We were off to a roaring start until daddy picked the Queen Frostine card, placing him way ahead of the rest of us. This caused my four-year-old to decide that things were just not fair. I hear ya, kid – mommy never picks the good cards either.
Battleship, on the other hand, was a hit. My daughter was just as into it as my son was. While he spread his boats out across the water, she cloistered all of hers tightly together in one corner. Okay, so she’s no military strategist. “The boats like their friends to be close,” she whispered. The kids soon didn’t need our help anymore with figuring out how to call targets and placing little pegs in their grids. “This is fun!” they both agreed. Total cost of an evening of jubilant game playing around the kitchen table: $1.50 worth of popcorn. That’s recession-proof fun right there, folks!
An overall success, we have expanded our collection of board games. The kids have been known to put down the Wii remotes and ask us to play Mancala or Connect Four. I won’t say that we haven’t taken the kids to a movie since then, but we’ve gotten awfully choosy when it comes to trips to the cinema. We’ve found that there’s a bit more talking and laughing that happens on game night than if we’re sitting in a movie theater eating $8 popcorn. Imagine that!
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