Adventures in TTG as Parents

Today my husband and I really wanted to play some tabletop games. We just haven't been able to play much lately. Even my own gaming has been limited to what I've gotten in with my kids in the gaming club. The last thing I played was Tsuro of the Seas.

We were getting ready to play Smash Up, while our daughter took her nap, and we just weren't quick enough. She was coming down the stairs as we were starting to move towards the table to start playing. Even more shocking was that she was onto our decision to play. She started rambling off the game titles on the table, none of which were going to work well with her.

Then I said, "How about 'Ticket to Ride'?" I forgot that she watches me play that online all the time and she jumped at the mere mention. She started to run around the island counter saying it over and over again. My husband groaned and didn't want to do it. I pushed the issue, asking my daughter to help me clear off the table and we started to take the items off the table and prepare the game.

I explained that her and I could play on a team together. Once everything was setup, I ran through a refresher on the directions and we started in. I was the blue pieces, my husband was black, and my daughter played with the green trains. In Toddler-Speak we played with Thomas, Diesel, and Percy.

It was a success, except when it came to scoring. Our daughter kept slightly moving the counter or might have moved a train or two, but we weren't playing for money or our lives or anything, so it wasn't a super big deal. I won the game, scoring 127 and my husband scoring 117. He had the longest railroad. I had the most routes completed. It was quite a bit of fun.

When that was over, our daughter kept begging to play the panda game. My husband took to trying to convince her that we were done with games for the evening and I, once again, found a way around that. I said she'd be fine and could do something. He let her roll the weather die! She became our Resident Panada Weather Girl!

It was really wonderful to be able to play a few games and involve our daughter. We constantly feel like we can't play, because she's so hands-on and she can't really play-play the games with us next. Heck, she's still learning the fine minutiae Candy Land! Granted, she's created her own game play for Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders, which is AWESOME!

Takenoko went really well, though. I even let her move the panda for me and she told me what the weather was for that day. It went wonderfully. Ray won Takenoko, but it was a close game. We each had 9 cards out at the end of it.

So we've reached a new point in our parenting as adults who love TTG with a toddler always present. We can play most games as long as she has a role to complete and the game doesn't go on too long. Like, we couldn't play a long campaign game with her around, because she just would not be very patient.  Most importantly, have a fresh, homemade popcorn snack available. So during those long daddy turns where he's busy strategizing and rolling his dice or spinning his dice ring for every little movement, we don't starve to death.

Hopefully we'll have another family gaming session soon. It was a really fun time and our daughter wasn't too difficult or impatient. I'm wondering what other games we have that she would do well with playing.