Hasbro Toys is releasing and updated version of its classic board game Life. Parents complained that the old version of the game wasn’t giving kids a true picture of what to expect when they grow up.
- The Game of Life Just Got Uglier
So Hasbro has added “harsh reality cards,” which players will draw when they land on a depressed woman sitting in a dark nook in the kitchen. A harsh reality card example reads, “litigation and subsequent divorce.” If drawn that player loses half his money, house, car, and children and must use the “Ford pinto of shame” game piece for the next 10 turns.
Reception of the revised game from parents has been positive but less so from children. In child trials one child who drew the harsh reality “cancer” card cried for 20 minutes before curling up in a fetal position next to the board. Perhaps the new version needs teenage age restrictions because kids play games for the same reason adults see movies – for entertainment and escapism.
Harsh Realties Enter Game of Life
Would you want your daughter or son to draw a harsh reality card that read:
- Muffin top grows into 30-pound belly bagel
- Aunt Flow leaves and Hormonal Helen moves in
- Husband leaves you for man
- Scrapbooking turns to $500 a month addiction
- Four-car pileup with casualties in Midlife?
Where is your life leading you? Are you driving or still in the passenger seat?
Watermusic,
That is exactly what to do to keep your spirit and energy in harmony. Thank you for sharing. Letting yourSelf off the hook is the hard part. Good for you.
I want to share your story with a client that is coming next week who can ne
I guess it is your son or M. Obviously your son is into protecting you from further engagement in a destructive relationship. Your son is right, you did deceive him. Again, obviously he holds you in higher esteem than you hold yourself.
Ho
This is a tough one, because there are two sides to this. One, your son has the right to be upset with M, as he was abusive verbally to you and your son. By M and your son arguing and calling each other names, that tells me that M is not very matur
I remember spinning the wheel to “play the market” – and you always ended up winning a bunch of dough! Add a harsh reality card for a bear market – your IRA just shrank to half size in the past 10 years. You may have to work until you are 80 to make up the difference.
Don’t forget extra pegs to put in the car for your aging parents who are moving in with you – as well as the “boomerang kids” returning home with their fresh little advanced college degrees, deep student loan debt, and non-existant job prospects.
Thanks for this. It’s either laugh or cry, right?
Yes it’s kind of sad isn’t it. My 72 year old mother who is a huge garage saler, just bought me a game made in the late 70s called The Game of Midlife — never saw it before — obviously not a big seller. It is so depressing to read the cards. Such a downer; I don’t know who would want to play it. Thank God we all can write our own happy endings and life stories, positive ones.