I have always love playing games of any sort with my daughter. From simple board games like Shutes and Ladders and Candyland when she was quite young to Checkers and Monopoly when she got a bit older. We also loved to play card games like War and Go Fish. Looking back, the particular game that we were playing did not matter. It was the time that we spent together talking and being silly. I remember plenty of rainy days spending hours playing Poker with our Scooby Doo cards for acorn tops. Then there was Crazy Eights. This was the first game that she really mastered and could beat me with her strategy and cunning. I graciously accepted defeat and tried my parental best to model how to be a good sport. However, I still knew that if we played any sort of video game, I would blow her out of the sky and/or water with my superior skills, hand/eye coordination, and cat-like reflexes.
The other day, I finally had to acknowledge that not only have my skills eroded over time, but that hers have developed to the point that she is by far the dominant gamer in our house. We were playing Donkey Kong Country Returns on the Wii the other day. She controlled Donkey Kong and I controlled Diddy Kong. We had been trying to get through one of the levels for a while without success. At some point it became clear that one of us was holding us back, and it wasn't her. She literally picked up my character, wresting gaming control from me, and with me on her back, zoomed through the level in a matter of moments. I sat there powerless and mesmerized. Maybe I can get her to play War with me again, that should increase my odds of winning significantly.
