If I have to play a game of golf with my kid, the one where I inevitably get the broken foamy club, or a round of Simon Says where every single command begins "Simon says," for the rest of my God-given parental life, then please kill me now.
It's not that I'm a stickler for the rules or a game hater. It's just that as much as some of us want to let our inner children soar during Red Light, Green Light and Candyland, quality family times can sometimes be mind-numbingly dull. Give me a board game that doesn't have 8,000 pieces that are sure to end up in someone's esophagus or buried in the carpeting, has a theme that doesn't feature licensed characters and something to do that will be fun for longer than 30 seconds. After all, we're TRYING TO BOND as a family here, people!
Maybe staying relatively alert and engaged will be a bit easier with this list of new family-friendly games where the fun and challenge might actually include you. Cranium Zooreka looks to be a classic board game with funny twists and an eco-theme that even includes gorilla babies. Who can resist gorilla babies? I Spy With My Eagle Eye is one I think my toddler would love and seems like a great game to throw in the carry-on for trips. Nerdy Wordy would be fun for kids beginning to grasp spelling and reading and older and is sure to bring out the crazy logophile in every geeky parent.
