Ordinarilly, playing board games and spending time with the family is a good thing. You get to spend quality time together, bond, enjoy each others company, etc... unless you're playing the Star Wars Trivial Pursuit DVD game. I got it a couple months ago for my birthday. It's been played once. Count 'em: Once. And not very likely to be played in the house again anytime soon. Don't get me wrong: it's a great game. There are actually some challenging questions for an old Star Wars geek like myself. The problem is more with my opponents. My wife and our 5 year old daughter played together against me. To their credit, they knew more than I thought they would. My wife fed our daughter answers to some of the harder questions, but she did pretty well on her own. Now, here's the problem: I am THE in my house. I impose a 3 question rule where I will only get 3 questions in a row right before turning it over to the other team. Where it really gets touchy is when I win. By nature I am not an overly bad winner. I tend to be pretty laid back and non-gloating. A smug smile every now & then, but otherwise I'm a good winner. My wife tends to be pretty competitive with board games. For example, when we first started dating back in college we used to play SW Monopoly a lot. Mainly because niether of us had much money to go out. Anyway, she'd usually win. Not because I let her, but because she's better at Monopoly than I am. Anyway, one night after a particularly sound win, she totalled up her winnings: all her remaining cash on hand, properties, etc. That sheet of paper is still in the box. I'm making sure it stay there so our kids know that their mother has always been like that. I used to think a bad loser is bad until I met a bad winner.

Now, back to Trivial Pursuit. Even with the combined efforts of wife & daughter I still won the game. The real bad part was my daughter. She's not a bad loser for a 5 year old. But she did get a little weepy. I felt bad for her, but this was MY game. I can't lose a Star Wars game. I didn't rub it in her face or anything, but I was given the idea that next time I should let her win. Or at least be on my team...