Triple Trouble

Someone, in her infinite lack of wisdom, purchased my son a very noisy game of Trouble. Specifically, she purchased Hasbro's Star Wars R2-D2 Is In Trouble Game. More specifically, I was the foolish woman who purchased said game, so I have no one to blame but myself.

My son adores this game. He loves all of the bleeps, burbles, and random chirps that R2-D2 makes every time someone pushes the pop-o-matic bubble. After hearing these noises approximately twenty zillion times, I can state with great certainty that the noises are not nearly as entertaining to my twitching ears.

Sadly, the noises that are the most frustrating are actually the ones my offspring make while all trying to play this Trouble game together. They fight, argue, battle, quarrel, feud, debate, and quibble with one another. They even throw in some hassling, just for good measure. Today was the perfect example of the fiasco that is my three kidlets trying to play a game together.

     Rooster: *pushes the pop-o-matic bubble*
     Horse: "Hey! I was supposed to push that! It's my turn!"
     Rooster: "No, I'm after Pig Jr!"
     Horse: "No, it goes Pig Jr., then me, then you."
     Pig Jr.: *pushes the pop-o-matic bubble*
     Horse: "Didn't you just hear me say it was my turn?"
     Rooster: "I'm going to go now."
     Pig Jr.: "R2-D2 is so funny!"
     Horse: "Stop moving my guy! It's my turn!"
     Rooster: "You were just sitting there!"
     Horse: "Ha! I got to move four spaces. That bumps you back to the start!"
     Rooster: "But you didn't even pop the button! Pig Jr. did! That doesn't count!"
     Pig Jr.: "Is it my turn yet?"
     Horse and Rooster: "No!"

And they wondered why I didn't want to play with them...

After approximately half an hour into a game that's only supposed to take a few minutes to play, Rooster quit. Horse declared that meant she won because of a forfeit. Pig Jr. declared he should win because it's his game. I declared I would throw the dang game out if the argument did not stop this very second. That got their attention, and the game was cleaned up with the bare minimum of debate.

Maybe tomorrow will be a good day to sit the kidlets down together to play a game with a parent playing the fourth side. I'm thinking I might have to volunteer my husband for that task. I've heard about as many R2-D2 noises and kidlets arguing as I can stand.