I'm trying to figure out whether this new trend
is due to the dumbing-down of America or because our attention spans
are now the size of a gnats, but in either case, toy manufacturers are
busy rolling out "Express" versions of familiar family board games like
Scrabble, Monopoly, Life, and Sorry. Is this really
necessary? I thought part of the fun of these games was the
six-hour marathons incurred because the seven-year-old takes so long
with her turns, painstakingly moving her piece around the board,
one.space.at.a.time. At least, that's how it is in my house.
But...Candyland?
One mom in the article admits to cheating to hurry the game.
C'mon, Candyland takes, what, 15 minutes? We can't spare 15
minutes with our kids? I admit that there are times when a
shortened version of games would make life a lot easier and still
please everyone, but I think that sometimes it's nice to just spend a
lazy afternoon being really in the moment and decide to mow the lawn,
do the dishes, blog that article -- whatever -- later, because pretty soon
those kids are going to be growing up and won't give us the time of
day let alone sit down and play a game anymore, not without a whole
lot of eye-rolling and heavy sighs.
Check out the new Monopoly Express,
by the way. WTF? Looks like, er, so much fun. By the
way, if you're really into Monopoly, there's about a hundred different
specialty versions out there (I had no idea; Bass Fishing Monopoly,
anyone? Or Elvis Monopoly?) -- check 'em out!
