Monopoly

So, what am I doing at the end of this rollercoaster of a week? Going out? No. Indulging in a bottle of wine? Nope. Why, Monopoly, an activity my son actually loves more than TV and video games. Our apartment may be full of any number of board games, but when we sit down to play a game, it's pretty much only Monopoly (though we do mix it up with different versions--a great tag sale acquisition).
 
So, as I played tonight, my son trouncing me with his clearly newly learned buying and building strategy, I began to wonder what makes this game so appealing to a kid who is normally much more interested in screens (and to the millions of other people who play it too).
 
So, here goes--
 
1. You get to make money without even doing any chores. (hey, that's not bad, even if you're a grownup!)
 
2. You get to buy stuff (kids love that!) and charge people for stepping on your stuff (see above about making money).
 
3. You make collections of like colored things (my son is a huge collections person, from mugs, to rocks, to Lego figures). And these collections don't even fill up your shelf space.
 
4. You benefit from making smart choices. But you also benefit from sheer luck. Who among us hasn't wished to win the lottery (or a beauty pageant or the free parking jackpot)? And hey, in NYC, just having a space that says "free parking" is kind of a big deal.
 
5. You get to pick a little figure to represent you. Kind of like in a video game (except in a video game, I would imagine few of us are represented by a hat or a wheelbarrow).
 
6. It's one of the few toys your parents might let you leave out. Because it never finishes, and they want to buy and build and win too.
 
I could probably go on and on. But I'd best call it a night. The Monopoly's still all over the floor waiting for me to do some more rolling, buying, and building in the morning!