I Win: Learning that Life is not Fair

I Win: Learning that Life is Not Fair

It's getting late on a Saturday night. I can see the eyelids of the kids start falling as the hours move forward. The kids aren't alone. My eyes are about to close up for the night. My wife left half an hour ago and went to bed. For me, I won't leave the table as we are in a high stakes game of Monopoly. The hotels are on the board. All of the houses have been bought. All of the utilities and land on the board have been bought out. So soon, very soon, someone is going to go bankrupt, so I can finally get some sleep!

My son says, "Time to roll them dice Dad."

I take the dice, blow on them like I am betting the family farm in Vegas, then cup my hand and the dice drop to the board.

double sixes!

I take my piece, the sports car, and run it across the board, making car noises as I drive.

I land on Baltic Ave.

My daughter says, "Time to pay up Dad!".

I shuffle a few bills together and hand them over to my daughter.

She lets out a maniacal laugh that makes me think she was taken over by aliens!

One the laughter goes down, the game continues.

My son; picks up the dice, cups his hand, imitates blowing  on the dice, then lets them travel to the board

Snake Eyes ... double ones!

He takes the thimble (yes, I have an old school version of Monopoly) and goes two steps, to Park Place. I see the excitement that was in his face at the beginning of the game, along with the droopy eyelids, make his smiling face into a frown.

"Son,," I say, "Time to pay your sister."

My daughter chimes in, "Yeah. Time to pay up!"

Looking at the funds he has left, he doesn't have enough to pay the bill, and he knows it.

"Dad," my son asks, "Can I borrow some money?"

I reply, "I wish I could, but Monopoly doesn't work that way. You are accountable for all of your purchases. Somethings things don't always work to your advantage."

My daughter says, "Pay up or ..."

I turn to my daughter and say, "I know that you have a growing fondness for Monopoly, but you have to change your attitude a little bit. It wasn't that long ago when you were playing a game like this when you were losing, and your brother was winning."

My son chimed in, "That was the last time we played UNO!"

My daughter blurted out, "Never Happened! I am the UNO champion!"

I say, "Ok. Ok. I guess what I am trying to say is to not kick a person when they are down becasue the next person down could be you!"

She replies, "Ok. Dad. I'm sorry. I'll try to keep it down."

My son paid the money he owed to the bank by selling a few properties, which my daughter purchased in the next round.

Then, my daughter rolled the dice, and sure enough, landed on one of my son's properties and had to pay the fine. In the game of life, there are winners and losers, and things aren't always fair. But, you keep moving with the cards you have and every once in a while you get a break. Thank you for reading this episode of the blog. If you have any questions, leave them in the comment area below.