Sorry...Monopoly or Gold Sluicing?

Armstrong & Getty On Demand

The hosts discuss the value of analog entertainment like board and card games as a way to bond with their teenage children before they leave

Key takeaways

• Jack notes his teenage son's friend visited for a card-playing session, highlighting the social benefits of analog games over video games or TV
• Scott admits he struggles with fast-paced card games due to processing speed but is open to learning simpler ones like Cribbage

Main topics

• family bonding through board and card games
• screen time vs analog play

Notable quotes

I'm actually with my kids. This is not what I meant to talk about, but I actually, it bothers me less playing video games than just sitting there watching TV, because that's completely passive.

Conclusion

The episode underscores how intentional, interactive family activities c

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) This is an iHeart Podcast. Speaker 3 (0:02) Guaranteed human. Speaker 2 (0:04) Oh no! Or bingo! Or hit me! Or something. It's one more thing. Speaker 3 (0:09) Armstrong and Getty. One Speaker 2 (0:11) more thing. Speaker 3 (0:13) That was confusing I'm confused Speaker 2 (0:16) So there they might. Speaker 2 (0:19) Youngest high schooler had a friend over in the afternoon. Speaker 2 (0:24) They had the day off. Teachers conferences, which seems to happen like every other week. Speaker 2 (0:30) Had a friend over, and kid shows up with a deck of cards. And they play a lot of cards. Very religious family. I don't think they do video games or TV or whatever. And so he shows up with cards anyway. And so my son likes playing cards. And they played cards for a couple of hours. And I was in the other room doing stuff. And they were laughing and having a good time and everything like that. I thought that was really awesome. That's got to be better for you on ways I can't even measure than playing video games or something. I assume. Speaker 3 (1:01) Yeah, mostly, probably, yeah. I feel like there was Speaker 2 (1:05) more interaction going on with them talking to each other and whatever as they played cards than normally happens. It's Speaker 1 (1:11) a physical game, too. I mean, you're actually having to touch the cards and whatnot. You're not just staring at screens. Well, in Speaker 3 (1:17) video game, you're manipulating. I'm not knee-jerk anti-video game. It has some intellectual advantages, but cards is a different thing. Speaker 2 (1:25) Yeah, I'm actually with my kids. This is not what I meant to talk about, but I actually, it bothers me less. Neither one of them are big video games people, so I've never had to worry about the wasting your life playing video games. But it bothers me less playing video games than just sitting there watching TV, because that's completely passive. I mean, you're just nothing. Anyway, what I meant to talk about was board games, card games, something like that. I'm at that stage where I see my parenting years slipping away from me. I got a soon-to-be 17-year-old and a soon-to-be 15-year-old, and there ain't that much more time left of us hanging out together unless they end up being 30 years old and don't have jobs and live with me. But assuming they go out into the world at some point. And so I'm trying to come up with stuff for us all to do together. We eat together as often as possible, but more stuff. Speaker 2 (2:18) I was thinking board games. I mentioned on the radio show I ordered Jenga, so we're going to play Jenga tonight. Even if it's just like 15, 20 minutes every night after dinner, just something we hang out doing. You know how it is. You end up talking, laughing, whatever. Speaker 3 (2:32) Two words. Gold panning. Go up into the Speaker 2 (2:38) foothills. Speaker 3 (2:39) You got your sluice. I'm told that's a thing. You got your pan. You got your sluice. I think I mentioned that, whatever that is. And you pan for the gold. Yeah, they love that. Speaker 2 (2:50) Oh, yeah. So I was going to ask you all. I never have liked cards my whole life. I don't know why. I just never enjoyed playing cards. My brain doesn't work for it. I can't think fast enough. My dad loves cards. I mean, he grew up in a