Cheating to Lose

Earlier today, my four year old daughter asked me if I would play a card game with her. I said I would and asked her to pick one. She came back with Barbie Uno.

We have like six different versions of Uno with each one just a little different. This time she wanted the Barbie version. During the first game she seemed reluctant to put down cards that she could have and preferred to draw as if she didn't have any to play. But, in the end she won the first game. Through the whole second game, she did everything she could do to not win. She put down a card that allows her to trade cards with me when she only had two left and I had a big stack. I asked her why she was playing like that and she responded, "Because I want you to win Daddy." She wanted me to win this game because she won the first game.

In other words, she was cheating so that I could win a game. How cute is that? I guess she felt sorry for me.

My youngest son, nine years old, does the same thing with checkers. He tries really hard not to jump any of my pieces so that I will win. This is not a very practical stratagem for checkers. There are times where jumping is the only move you can make.

The fact that they would go to these lengths so that I could win is very touching. They must have gotten if from me. I do the same thing during game play with my kids sometimes. I don't know a parent that hasn't done the same with their kids. We can't help it. It is in a parents nature and job description do let our kids win at thing sometimes.