How often do you play board games?
We love to play board games as a family. It’s a great time to gather around the table, face-to-face and challenge each other to a mental match.
There are so many benefits of playing games together as a family – especially in today’s world of constant digital distractions.
But even though we enjoy it, it doesn’t mean we play board games as a family every day. And even when we do get time to play games, chances are high that not everyone’s around or in the mood to play a game.
In fact, the older the kids get, the less we’re able to play together as a whole family.
Most of the time when a board game hits the table, it’s only a few members of the family playing together. But that’s just fine. Because most games don’t accommodate 6 players anyway.
With so many activities pulling family members in different directions, we’ve set a family priority for spending at least 1 night a week at home together. For us that falls on Monday nights with our “Family Home Evening“.
For our activity on those nights, we often play a board game that we can all play together.
But not always.
When we are able to play games as a whole family, we take turns on who gets to choose the game. Depending on who’s choosing, we can almost guarantee what game they’ll pick.
If we’re not all playing, then it’s harder to guess which games will hit the table because the options are more wide open. But when we’re picking for all 6 to play and enjoy, these are the ones that hit the table the most:
- Caleb – 7 Wonders, Spot It
- Brooke – Clue, Say Anything Family, or Sounds Like a Plan
- Jaden – King of Tokyo, The Resistance
- Trevor – Snake Oil, Dixit Odyssey
- Mom – 7 Wonders, Sequence
- Dad – RoboRally, Lemming Mafia, or Sequence
How often does your family play board games together?
Since we understand the constraints of getting everyone in a family together to play games, this question is more about how often you play games with any members of your family. It may be just you and a sibling, you and a child, you and a spouse, you and a grandparent, or you and your whole extended family (we’d recommend Catch Phrase for that occasion).
Regardless of how many are together to play, we’d love to hear how often you play board games with members of your family.
Simply answer the poll below.
How often do you play board games or card games with your family?
- Only on Holidays or Special Occassions (11%)
- Once a Month (13%)
- Once a Week (31%)
- Few times a Week (38%)
- Every Day (7%)
Loading ...Happy gaming!
Nice post! I also have a spouse and four kids, so I know how rare it is to get everyone to the table at the same time.
Our game night tends to be Saturday, but we’ll move it in case of a conflict. We make sure we all get to play together at least once during the week, though.
Keep up the good work!
Russ
Russ – That’s great to hear. It’s great to be flexible yet still set it as a priority.
We usually play Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Lately it has been Rack-o or King of Tokyo or X-Wing miniatures. My wife found a used copy of Puzzle Strike which is really fun for the older kids. And at least one or two nights a week, my wife and I will play a game, just she and I. Our current favorites are Castles of Burgundy and Lords of Waterdeep.
Spencer – Lord of Waterdeep is one of the games on our ‘want to play’ list. Nice to here you enjoy it with your wife.
I voted once a week, but sometimes MUCH MORE than that. It depends on all that is going on, but board games build family memories that last forever!
Scott – So true. Sometimes it comes in spurts.
Our game time together as a family probably averages out to once a week. Sometimes it is way more and some weeks we just don’t get a chance. It is one of the primary ways that we enjoy entertainment together.
Jim – Happy to hear you enjoy games as a family. And, yep, balance is very important – some more, some less.
We try to have a family game night once a week. My kids are still very young so it’s pretty much only kids games on those days. My oldest has just started to be able to play Castle Panic though. He mostly knows what to do and it’s helping him to learn to read.
Playing games is more sporadic on other days, sometimes it’s with my kids sometimes with just my wife. I also break out a single player game occasionally.
Side question: Did you see the King of Tokyo Halloween expansion coming out? I want to be Pumpkin Jack.
Aaron – We did see an announcement for King of Tokyo Halloween Collector Pack 1 but haven’t looked into it much yet. Sounds like a fun addition.
If I go a few days without a game, I can feel the tension rise, so can my wife
Board/card Games are a de-stressor for me that adds to my family & doesn’t take away from it (like online & virtual gaming)
You may have tried these already, but for 6 players, like your family, we like:
Citadels (medium), Snorta (easy), Martian Dice (easy), Bang (I think you like this one already)
Brad – You’re right that we love Bang. And Martian Dice is a fun family game too. We haven’t played Citadels or Snorta though.
We go in waves. Currently we play about once a week. My three oldest, my wife, and I have an unofficial standing appointment each Sunday to play Settlers of Catan, while the three youngest play with themselves downstairs or watch a movie. Of course, our 4 year old likes to be at the table with us to build things out of our not-being-used pieces. We had a phase of Smallworld for a while, and that was great having a second board and tons of extra pieces for the younger kids to have their own game going on. We’ve settled on Catan because my two oldest are picky about games and that’s one of the few they like to play.
Aaron – That sounds like a great way to use the second Smallworld board.