7 Popular Kid’s Games That Technically Don’t Set A Good Example

Becoming a parent makes people look at things differently. It’s usually with the kid’s best interest in mind. You try to shield them for as long as possible from some of the crappier things in life, or at least try and fend them off until the child is old enough to understand.

You think you’re doing a pretty good job until you realize many of the things around the child are silently corrupting them. Especially things as simple as board and playground games.

Here are some popular kid’s games that might not be sending the best message to kids.

Battleship

First, it’s a game about war, which isn’t really the best way to explain to kids about military combat, especially to kids who might have parents serving in the armed forces. Second, the game is pretty damn easy to cheat at, all a player has to do is move their ships around so the opponent never really gets a good idea of where they are on the board. A player could even not put their ships on the board at all and hope they sink all their opponent’s ships before they realize they’ve been guessing for an hour without one hit. War and cheating.

Operation

A friend of mine had his appendix removed when we were in the fourth grade. He was terrified. All he imagined was a doctor poking at his different areas with a pair of tongs and hoping he didn’t touch anything by accident or BZZZZZZTT dead. It’s ridiculous but what did he know, he was a kid. He made it out alive. Even with his funnybone intact. His nose was red for weeks though.

Clue

Ummm, hello people, someone is dead. A person at this dinner party killed them and it doesn’t matter who did it, where, and with what, it’s still murder and crime. Instead of playing Columbo and asking questions how about we call the cops and let them figure it all out?

Chess

I personally didn’t take issue with the game but a friend of mine pointed out that while it does teach strategy and patience, the point of the game is to essentially kidnap monarchs. There is sometimes no real physical end to the game. Unlike Checkers, for example, where the game ends when the players Checkers are all taken, Chess is more taunting. It’s won when you get to tell the other player “You’re on the board but you can’t move. Let’s sit here and stare at your pieces while you wallow in defeat. It’s fun.

Guess Who

While the game is just a pure guessing game, things get kind of weird when played by young children that don’t know any better about the proper way to describe people. The game kind of promotes profiling and stereotyping. Does your person wear glasses? Are they fat? Are they Asian? Did they once cheat on their taxes? Do they have kinky hair? Right after we tell our kids not to judge people based on appearances we let them play guessing games based on people’s differences

Duck Duck Goose

The only non-board game on the list, Duck Duck Goose teaches kids to do the two things that adults are usually yelling at them not to do: touch others and running around inside. Visit any pre-school, on any given day, and I’m positive the teacher will tell numerous kids to stop touching one another and stop running around about a hundred times per hour yet games like duck duck goose and even tag are encouraged on the playground. Johnny don’t play with knives, now finish carving a duck out of wood.

Monopoly

It’s all about money and power kids. You must obtain the most money, property and material possessions and crush anyone in your path. Also, you can get out of jail just by paying and every time you do something as easy as passing Go BOOM! $200 in your pocket. At least the old game taught kids how to count money but the new versions come with credit card machine that keeps track of your winnings. Uncle Moneybags has gone paperless!