Monopoly: House Rules?
C & G are on a Monopoly kick. I played endless hours of Monopoly with my BFF/next door neighbor when I was ~7-8 or so. We did the following things, which I now know are “wrong”:
- Pile o’ money in the center of the board, which you got upon hitting Free Parking
- Never auctioned off a property (ie: if someone landed on Park Place and it was empty, if they didn’t want it, we all just moved on. No one else had the chance to bid)
As a result our games lasted FOREVER! It is definitely more fun the ‘regular’ way except when I land on Free Parking my brain (which apparently is still stuck in 1989) gets all excited for a millisecond before I find out that . . .nothing is actually supposed to happen on that spot. SAD!
Did anyone else play it wrong in the late 80s/90s?
More on Extra-Long-Term Planning
I’ve done 100 Dreams lists before (inspired by Laura!) but I am intrigued by the idea of a shorter list of things to complete in a concrete longer-term timeline (as inspired by the Mom Hour ep mentioned yesterday).
Admittedly travel is the first thing that comes to mind — which seems almost a little bit too superficial/obvious. STILL, it’s definitely there. If I had to make a short list of destinations I am really hoping to hit over the next 5 years, it would include:
- Japan (preferably timed with the Hobonichi launch!)
- At least one Europe trip – now thinking Denmark (Kae just got back and I really really really want to go now!)
- Back to Hawaii
- Inn at Little Washington (this one is totally indulgent, and I am hoping to piggyback this on when I go back to Hopkins in 2 years, haha).
- Travel-wise I am otherwise happy to basically just repeat or do variations on our favorites: Durham, Philadelphia (for fam visits), Williamstown (for reunions), Montana, and Amelia Island/other FL faves (Vero, Keys) because I love familiar trips so much!
All of that is fun, but non-travel items are harder. Being able to do a pull up seems like a cool goal but I’m not entirely sure how realistic (? inspire me, if you are my age or older and can do unassisted pull ups!). Do I want to read the entire catalogue of a favorite author? Become an expert in (something)?? Write more books? Think about how to combine my very hybrid career better (admittedly, recently Cal Newport ep made me jealous he has been able to sort of meld his two jobs into one, but I am not sure exactly how that would work in my case).
Things to ponder. Maybe my next book can be on longer term thinking and planning, hahaha.
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My 8 yo son is on a major Monopoly kick for the past year or so. He has batman Monopoly and the regular one. I think I still prefer the original over any of the theme ones. I definitely enjoyed it while growing up as well, but didn’t really get into it until college – owning a whole colored property, creating houses, hotels, etc. I played rather simply as a kid. Anyways, we still play with the whole free parking – all taxes and fees are paid in the middle. I don’t think I realized it wasn’t an official rule until much recently! Ha! Oh also, we are really enjoying Monopoly Deal – can be played with 2-4 people and takes much less time to complete a game! Now that we’re in summer, it’s a fun, quick, game to do after dinner! We’ll do a few rounds, but so much fun! Have yall tried it?
No! But we should!!
My kids were so bored by Monopoly when I tried to get them to play! I was kind of bummed because my dad and sister and I played it for hours when I was a kid. But it is such a long game so I kind of get why they’re not that into it. I love thinking about long-range travel dreams. Japan is also on our list for a “big” trip in the next 5 years. I keep a spreadsheet with all the available travel times for the next five years and all my “dream trips” along the side (similar to what you talked about on the podcast) and I love playing around with all the pieces and slotting things in. Other possible trips include the Pacific NW (hard to narrow down where), the Canadian Rockies, Alaska, Yosemite, the Badlands/Black Hills, and the Canary Islands (on the list because we have friends who just moved there!). I would love to do a big Europe trip before my kids graduate from high school but also I find narrowing down Europe destinations to be sooo overwhelming.
Cameron and Genevieve are surprisingly into it but we will see how long this phase lasts!!
I am about your age and we also played with that free parking rule! Maybe it was an 80s thing?
We played that too! Maybe the rules have changed
I don’t know if I have ever finished a game of monopoly in my life. It is such a long game!! I was the 4th kid so maybe by the time I came around there had been enough bad experiences that it was not offered up as an option? We own it now but haven’t tried playing it with Paul yet. My MIL has a game called ‘Allowance’ that Paul enjoys playing. It is a much shorter game which I appreciate. Will can even play but he loses interest pretty quickly.
Another place to consider adding to your list for family trips that is not far away is Asheville, NC. Although a direct flight is probably not an option. It’s about 2 hours from CLT and the 2nd hour you are in the mountains so it is very scenic. When our boys can handle more hiking, that is a place I am keen to go because the hiking options are amazing and the food/brewery scene is great. That is where we went for our babymoon.
I’ve been there and love Asheville! I always love any opportunity to go back to NC so I am sure we will make it there. A’s travel gym meet is out near there next year (but in winter …) its optional, so undecided if we will go!
We used to play “Calvin and Hobbes monopoly” (maybe there was a comic about it? Don’t remember) in which you were allowed to cheat/steal, but if you got caught had to return the item and pay a fine
Yes, come to Copenhagen and check out Kartotek Copenhagen! And tons of other great spots.
Someone else recommended it but I’ll also chime in that Monopoly Deal is a GREAT game. I do not like games, but Monopoly Deal is actually enjoyable. We play it almost daily. It’s short, simple, and an entire round generally takes less than 10 minutes (and you can play with 2 players which is always nice). 1000x better IMO that monopoly.
Oh I can’t get into monopoly but my husband and son play. We like shorter games after dinner – uno, sushi go, Yahtzee.
You can totally do a pull-up but it will probably require patience. I favor chin-ups over pull-ups, but the training isn’t so different. I started from scratch and it took me a whisker over four months of consistent training with heavy weights.
Will your comment field let me share links? This is a post from the first time I did an unassisted chin-up: https://www.mostgladly.net/cj/2021/09/58.html
This is another post about pull-up training: https://www.mostgladly.net/cj/2024/10/a-hard-one-an-easy-one.html
As a goal-oriented person who has reached the big goals she wanted (md-phd degree — check! academic job in anesthesiology — check! dogs — check! one child — check!) I have been kind of struggling with what I really want to do now that I’ve done all the things that were on my original list. Making up a 100 dreams list seems a little artificial to me because I don’t have many things that I want to make sure I do before I die. Instead, I have been trying to focus on maximizing my day-today happiness, which involves both short and long range planning. For instance, I am happier when I exercise regularly, so I try to do something every day I’m not on call. I also need to tickle parts of my brain that being a dr does not reach, so I do research as part of my job to do that. I am happier when I have regular social interactions, so I am trying to do activities that enable me to form more meaningful relationships with non-family members. I don’t have a travel destination bucket list mostly because I don’t care that much where we go, as long as we go somewhere, preferably somewhere new since I also like some novelty. I don’t really have administrative aspirations within my hospital, except insofar that I like getting stuff done that helps things run smoother, and if I can use data to do that so much the better. If the research doesn’t work out (who knows!) not sure what I will do to tickle my brain, but I’ve been considering part time anesthesiologist/part time dog mom, which would leave me time to figure it out.
A lot of what I am doing is also trying to relieve myself of guilt. Stupid guilt for doing things like sleeping when I am tired (no, it is not ridiculous to be totally drained after a meeting with my research coordinator), not getting enough work done on my admin days, or exercising on days that I haven’t been “productive enough.” It’s a process.
I had this idea for a long time that what I *really* wanted was to be able to provide my daughter with all of the advantages my colleagues from wealthy families in med school were able to provide, like paying for college, paying for professional school, buying a house for her, helping pay for her childcare if needed… things that really seemed to help launch my colleagues that I (except for college) was not able to benefit from, but I recently came to the realization that that many of those things are a big reach even as an anesthesiologist and only having one child. Even moving to be near her to help with her future potential family, if she were to need the help, might be financially out of reach if she chooses to live somewhere expensive. Or what if I am sick and not able to do it. So, I am trying to let go of that also.
Anyway. That was long.
I think the getting rid of guilt goal sounds like an excellent one, and even if none of us can do *everything* for out kids, it sounds like you are doing a lot.
For you athletic goals: pull ups, pistol squats, splits, backbends, 50 pushups.
I can do a backbend (though I am sure it could be prettier and I can’t hold it for that long). I would love to get crow and side crow back! I used to be able to do them.
45 yo here and I can do multiple unassisted pull ups! Keep training with heavy weights. You’ll get there before you know it!
Yes to playing Monopoly the wrong way back in the 80s with my sister! I loved being the thimble and the iron. My family now loves Monopoly Deal for all the reasons the other commenters said! And The Inn at Little Washington is AMAZING. We went there for my 40th birthday and again for our 20th anniversary (when we stayed there) and both times it was incredible. A major splurge but I don’t think there are many (any?) other restaurants like it.
I definitely played the exact same wrong way! Our new favorite is Monopoly Deal… shorter and more fun!
As for longer term goals, I recently finished my doctorate which was obviously a longer term goal. It was really hard to come up with anything too long term after that. I had some short term ones… moving mom (she’s moving down the street from us) and take a refresher statistics course. After that…. ???
I have a little mental block at really envisioning ANYTHING much beyond the next 3 years (when A will graduate from high school). I feel like so much in how our life will look longer term will depend on where the boys end up going to school, are they still local/around town?, how the health of my parents holds up as they age (I’m the only one around to help as my sister is overseas), etc. So I haven’t really thought too much about any big dreams or plans beyond the shorter term right now! I know I can obviously still do “things” no matter what, but it’s just harder for me to wrap my head around it all until some of the unknowns are more sorted out. Even in terms of travel, I have no idea what that will look like when the boys are in college. So much will depend on their plans/schedules/etc as to if they’ll still be able to join us and when…
What is this about auctioning off a property? We never played that way- is it the correct way? We did pile money in the middle of the board though.
I feel like I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to do a pull up. But, the way I look at it is, if I’m at least working towards it, I’m stronger than if I’m not trying at all.
My mind kind of doesn’t want to look ahead five years. I think it’s because my daughter graduates from high school in two years, and then life will be very different! It’s hard to make plans though because we don’t know where she’ll go to college, or what my son will be doing. I guess I should start thinking about it- but I’m in “empty nest denial” right now.
I just wrote about the 100 Dreams list, so that’s been on my mind, but I’m intrigued by the idea of a shorter timeline! I’ll have to check that episode out. Pretty much any way you slice planning, it’s fun to me! I also wrote about how I’m a “completionist” and have to be very mindful NOT to default to goals like “read every book by this author”. But that’s definitely fun sometimes!
And Monopoly is totally better with the pile of money in the middle!
We do a biweekly game night with my family (just me, my mom, my brother, and sometimes my nephews if they don’t have any “better” offers ha), and we LOVE Monopoly. We have a Star Wars Monopoly for my brother and I keep threatening to get a Taylor Swift version, lol. We play the Free Parking rule! Sometimes that’s the only way to get ahead in the game, lol. We will let someone else buy a property if the person who landed on it doesn’t want it. And everyone has to go around the board once before they can buy any property!
I just want to encourage you on the pull up thing- it is a fun goal to train for! I got the full pull up for the first time this year at age 42 after a few months of focused training. Of course now I can’t do it again (putting on a little weight makes a difference) but now I know it’s possible and will get there again!
that is awesome!!!!