Family Game Night (FGN)

Football and beer :) while I'm still not a father!

It is a great thing to do if your children develop an interest in board games naturally by watching you, and gradually join in gaming sessions of their own free will. That's how I discovered science fiction, which I still love to read; I asked what my father was reading, so he told me about it and it sounded really interesting.

Its not so great if it's like this:
Father: "Now children, you are all going to sit at the table and play games because this is a FAMILY event and we need to do this AS A FAMILY".
Child: "But dad! I wanted to go watch a movie at my friend's house! We arranged it..."
Father: "No Buts! FAMILY!.

If your kids like spending time with you, family game nights or any other fun family activities will probably just naturally happen. But if they sometimes want to skip a game night that should also be ok, because if they feel forced into it, it won't go down well, and they may end up disliking games.

I have a 9-year-old daughter who I play games with quite often (and I've been blogging about it for the last 5 years!) though the frequency of this varies greatly as she goes through phases of being interested and not interested in gaming. We don't really have family game sessions as my wife is not very interested in board games, though she does join us once in a while.

What we do do from time to time is to hook up with another family to have an inter-family games afternoon, and that usually goes down well.

My kids are 5 and 7 and haven't really gotten into games yet. They love matching games and kick my butt in those, but that's the extent of their gaming for now.

My wife and I play games together somewhat consistently though. It's usually one of my prototypes, and she's usually glad to help me make the game better. God blessed me with a very patient woman as she soldiers through bad mechanics and designs at times.

She also usually beats me...at my own games...

I look forward to the day when the whole family can play games. Maybe in a few years.

When I was 8 or so, my father decided to DM our first D&D adventure on a Sunday afternoon after church. from that moment on, every Sunday night was devoted to games with the family, video or tabletop. It really helped our family to feel closer together, and it helped to teach my older brother with Asperger's how to communicate with the rest of us without getting upset.

Also, I'm a Mormon (meaning, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). Something that our church teaches us to do is set aside a night every week to do something with the whole family (the typical recommendation is Monday night, but families are free to pick a night according to individual needs). Our family, being six people, would trade off taking charge of one of six activities, including the following: conductor (usually about 5 mins, topics varied), game, and treat. This gave the family a chance to come together to discuss important issues, and also play games together.

Playing games (and otherwise having fun) together as a family is absolutely critical as kids grow older. I highly recommend it.