For Christmas, The Dad gave Daughter 2 The Game of Life. And by that, I mean that I bought it, wrapped it and signed his name to the tag! She loved the game and as a family, we played approximately 87 games over Christmas break.
You remember The Game of Life, right? You spin and drive your car, full of stick figures around the board having kids, changing jobs, paying taxes until you eventually retire. Then you count the money. And whomever has the most money is the winner. Truly a case of board games imitating, well, life!
Today, after we had played 46 rounds of Wii golf and danced our booties off to Just Dance 2 (the best game ever, am I right?), Daughter 2 decided she wanted to play Life. The Dad and Daughter 1 decided this would be a great time for them to become engrossed in whatever book they could grab. I, forgetting what it was like to play such an exhausting game with a 7 year old, agreed to play. I drove an orange car. If they really wanted to modernize the game, the makers would let there be a minivan... just sayin'...
Right off the bat, you must choose whether or not you want to establish a career OR go into $100,000 worth of debt and go to college. Daughter 2 chose to go straight to a career. Seeing this as an opportunity to visit with her about important life lessons, I asked her why she didn't want to go to college and stand a better chance at earning more money.
"Easy, Momma," she explained, "I want to hurry up and have kids."
{sigh}
This was going to be a long game.
After Daughter 2 was married, she and her husband, whom she named "Hunky Man" bought a starter home. As she drew the card, she didn't wish for the condo or the Tudor style home; instead, she wished for the mobile home. That way, she could "move around a lot and put it anywhere she wanted."
Now, I'm not saying my daughter is a cheater, but I am saying that she cheated her little butt off! She didn't cheat so that she could earn more money on her long term investments. She didn't cheat so that she could "lawsuit" me and rob me blind. She cheated so that she would end up stopping on every single squared that offered her a chance to have babies! She eventually had so many babies that she ditch "Hunky Man" so she could transport all her babies. Besides, she really didn't "need a man" anymore.
Oh. My. Gawd. I was beside myself! Not that there's anything wrong with not going to college... not that there's anything wrong with living in a trailer... not that there's anything wrong with having a dozen or so kids as a married OR single woman. To each her own! But, I want to raise an independent woman and that would require her to have a good education and to make wise choices... not cheating with the spinner as she goes through life! Honestly, I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown before the game ended! I had to remind myself... it was just a game.
And it was her life. She could make whatever decisions she wished. As long as she was happy, I should be happy as well, right?
Despite all her stops to have kids, she finished first. I retired from a thriving medical practice with a boy and a girl and a nice luxury mountain retreat. And I didn't even cheat with the spinner to get to that point! Since Daughter 2 is only in first grade, I had to count our assets and determine exactly who won the game. Since she's a sore loser -- no, that's not right; she's a REALLY sore loser -- I worried about how she'd take the news that I had defeated her uneducated little self. I was, after all, a doctor!
Then I finished counting and the little momma-to-be had beat me by about a half a million! How in the world did this happen. So, I counted again, telling Daughter 2 it was because I had lost track of all her $100,000 bills!
The second time, the outcome was a bit different... she beat me by $700,000! I called in The Dad to count up, and he concurred that she had indeed beat me.
"Don't worry, Momma!" she consoled me as I set and pouted... I mean contemplated life in general. "It's OK. Just think: If I have that many kids, that's how many grandkids you'll have. Doesn't that make you feel better? And, you can babysit them anytime you want!"
If Milton Bradley wanted to be realistic, they'd have included a pitcher of margaritas in the box!
