Board games are a good way to unwind and bond over laughter and silly arguments. Most of my childhood memories are of various games played with immediate and extended family at yearly get-togethers. In every game, there's always a *cheater* who tries to bend the rules in his favour, a *cry-baby* who always feels lost in the dumps, a *cunning player* who is a master at strategy and an *innocent player* who's oblivious to all the scheming and drama. Let's not forget to add the sore-loser and over-excited winner to the list. The duo is not annoying any less. However, this diversity is what makes any game lively. ![1000102487.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmWRGHvYQT2i4xzca6z5X7arqJWrfNW7sbkoGj7n1aC7m2/1000102487.jpg) My son, who recently turned 8 (how many times has this come up?), got Monopoly as one of the presents. Unlike the Jigsaw puzzle, which only me and my husband felt responsible for, *Monopoly* has become a Friday night ritual for the whole family. Since it takes a good 3 to 4 hours, I have strictly limited it to once a week. Kids wait all week for Friday to pull me down. All the boys are better than me. That's unfair. In my defence, I have never really played the game ever, probably once at a birthday party when I was 8. So, it was kind of the first time for me like my kids. The husband briefed us about the game as we played. ![1000102539.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmS6DeG9djd5dEGfKsPMTvcp3LDDFgVkrhEjD8jAHDrPrL/1000102539.jpg) I quickly learned that real estate gets pricey as we move away from the starting point. The land is more profitable when you build something on it (which makes sense), and to build something, you need to own the whole land in the same area. Ok good. I can do that. I bought land at a reasonable location and quickly built a hotel which I could rent for $1000. I could dream dollars rolling towards me, but to my dismay, not a single opponent landed at my hotel until I was close to bankruptcy and had to sell it to survive. Even then, the boys didn't take long enough to throw me out of the picture. ![1000102491.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmNmQacBvqfQeBzg1NU6MjzMa8ZXSZjqL1kXLmJ8qW316z/1000102491.jpg) ^{Snacks are a must when we sit together} In the first game, I was savagely destroyed. But that didn't make me lose my morale. I made the mistake of quickly building a hotel in the first game; I should have scattered low-paying buildings over different lands and then moved towards high-paying establishments. ![1000102568.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmQWqGM4knqbuteQMCF73LPyPuxdKrChCqyEg1i3eshjym/1000102568.jpg) ^{So many hurdles} Keeping that in mind, I looked forward to the next Friday, passing savage remarks to my overexcited winner son all week. Luck wasn't on my side even the second time. I think they bewitched my dice; otherwise, how's it possible to get such weird combinations on every single roll — jail time, chance, community chest, parking? While I was huffing and puffing between these locations, the boys bought almost all the property and I lost all my money paying heavy rents. I was a sore loser, and my son—once again, the over-excited winner; the husband remained the cunning one in both games but remained 2nd both times. Our youngest is his dad's minion who doesn't know how to play, but more than that, he doesn't want to lose—ever. ![1000102569.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmR6jwFd6xng4vFpAxxhvveNtZVue255ujV3tWSkKiWWT1/1000102569.jpg) ^{The only property that kept me away from bankruptcy for a long time} We couldn't play this Friday as we were travelling. I will write again about the game only when I beat my savage boys.