When a board game gets heated, tensions are bound to rise. But if you find yourself getting so angry when you play Scrabble with your mom that you call her a “bitch” and mean it with every fiber of your being, then it might be time to take a step back and reevaluate the way you play. Here’s how:
Take a deep breath.
If your mom just scored a double word and triple letter score off of the word you only got five points from, instead of saying something that might permanently alter the state of your relationship, take a deep breath and remind yourself that it’s just a game. Sure, she shouldn’t have done something like that to someone she loves, but that doesn’t give you an excuse to call her the word that she can’t stand to hear in literally any pop song.
Remember that she’s your mom.
When you’re really focused on winning the game, sometimes your familial attachments fall to the wayside in the pursuit of winning. However, make sure that you don’t completely forget who this woman is to you. She’s your mother, which means that she likely gave birth to you and raised you from an infant to an adult. This still means something, even if her score is more than triple than yours at this point and she obviously doesn’t care about you or your happiness at all.
Flip the board.
If you seriously can’t help yourself from acting out in a fit of rage, try flipping the board over instead. Sure, it’s still something a sore loser would do, but at least you won’t be calling your own mother a “bitch”. You can pick up all the letter pieces of the game off the floor, but you may never be able to take back what you said.
Play with someone else next time.
Maybe your mom is too good at Scrabble and you should play with your dad or your sister instead. After all, an unfair game is an unfair game, and you should be playing with someone at the same vocabulary level as you. You can also feel free to call another opponent anything under the sun, because they aren’t your mom and you won’t feel as guilty afterwards.
So if you want to play your mom in Scrabble but you’re afraid that you’ll call her a “bitch” and really mean it, then try out these tips to avoid causing a rift in the entire family. You still want her to make you dinner when you come over, don’t you?
