UNO!

I adored UNO as a child, a teen, and a single adult. It was only natural to start teaching Briar, at the ripe old age of 5, to play. We had to wait until Jacob and Charlie were sleeping, because they were too young to participate, but old enough to hinder the play. So our night time card games on our bed with B were born. She caught on quickly, and soon began beating us, without any help or dumbing down of the game.
Jacob began playing at age 4.5ish, and like most things he wants to excel at, he did. He was (and still is) a bit of a petulant loser. When the tears start, I threaten to end the game. I can't handle it. Charlie didn't really show any interest until kindergarten, and he's not competitive about it, but he enjoys it.
Henry at 4 is easily distracted, and hasn't caught on to what the cards that aren't numbers actually do. He can partner with someone for a while, but often makes a nuisance of himself.
Tonight we were attempting to relax before bed with a few games while Ryan tiled the front porch. It's been a stressful last week since discovering not on,y was the waterproof layer on the porch cracking, but water had collected and seeped down under the plywood to warp and rot most of it, some of the joists, and leave a residue of mold on the insulation. It's been expensive, labor-intensive, and anger-inducing considering we've lived here less than a year and purchased what we thought was a finished remodelled home. We paid a shit-ton of dinero for it, to boot.
Anyhow, we needed to do something together, so we decided to break out the cards.it started off okay, but Henry bored quickly, and began bothering everyone he could by rolling over them, massaging them, talking centimetres away from faces, depositing his legs on their arms, etc. Then Jacob, true to form, questioned every rule I dared to enforce in the game, not being satisfied with the 30 years plus of experience I have with the game. We had to google the rules, and only then was he satisfied. I shrilled at them more than once for petty behavior, and strong language was spoken. I'm bummed I lost it with them. I really want them to look back fondly on our card games together. I think they will. I have wonderful memories of my family playing games together growing uo, and I'm sure we were just as prone to fighting, being poor sports, and general unkindness.