Every once in a while I’ll insist that we sit down as a family and play games.  I have visions of family fun, wonderful cozy memories for our children,  a fabulous night punctuated with laughter and popcorn.

What we get is more along the lines of a Jerry Springer episode.

Turns out that we’re ALL horribly competitive and my dh, who will insist he doesn’t care if he wins or not, is usually the first to commence shouting when the game doesn’t go his way.

“Stop hollering.  This is Family Fun Night.”

Daughter snorts.  “More like Family Fued Night.  Momma, you know this never works.   Everybody always ends up mad.”

True, but I am firmly in denial.  I grit my teeth and smile.  “We’re gonna have fun.  Like normal familes.”  I point to the happy people on the box.  “Like them.”

Son rolls his eyes.  “You know that’s not a real family.  They’re just people they paid to put on the box.”

“They could be a real family,” I insist.

“No,” he says, “’cause if they were a real family they’d be fighting like us.”

I cling to that as I ponder the sad state of our Family Fun Night.  In the end, we did play Imaginiff and it was a wonderful game.  We also played Scene It, which was also very fun, but I have to admit that’s where most of the fueding came in.  Both dh and son wanted to be the DVD Master, daughter got ticked because she’d set up a lovely “game play” area and no one wanted to sit there.  Ultimately, we set it to “party play” and ended up enjoying it more.

So what about ya’ll?  Does your family like to play games?  Do ya’ll fight?  If not, please lie.  I’m clinging to the faint hope that we’re normal.