Daddy's Fish BowlA Clear View Of A Father's Family Experiences

A Cheater In His Habitat

Have you ever wondered how kids learn to cheat?  Is it something that they see others doing and just pick up, or is it in them from birth?  Those are questions that I’ve been asking myself lately and I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s pure instinct.  I think we’re all born with it, and it just comes naturally.  Through our desires of winning and succeeding, we find a way to make it happen, even if it isn’t attainable on our own merit.  You may be asking what drove me to make such a brazen claim.  Well, I had a test subject and his name was Ty, and you know what, one day my test subject decided to cheat!  Once he did, it was game time! Operation “Stop The Cheater” was in full effect and Fefe & I were ready to unleash a shock and awe campaign.

As I was on my way home from work, about to enter the door, I get a text from Fefe that says “I think Ty just cheated in “Candy Land”, don’t say anything when you come in”.  So I’m ultra confused, like what is she talking about, Ty doesn’t cheat?  When I walk in the house, I see Ty on the floor with the game and he’s mixing up the cards, and Fefe is peeping her head from the kitchen signaling me to come in there.  Once I go into the kitchen, it felt like an episode of “The Sopranos”.  I mean seriously, she starts running water in the kitchen sink to muffle her whispers as if the house was bugged and this was the only safe way to communicate. In the faintest voice ever, she tells me that she thinks Ty just cheated in “Candy Land” and was trying to see if he was going to do it again.  Ty had never cheated before so I figured she was mistaken.

She explained that during their first game, she told Ty to mix up the cards and she went into the kitchen to check on the food.  When she came back, Ty was giggling and looked very sneaky, he insisted on going first since he was the youngest.  For those of you not familiar with “Candy Land”, the rules state that the youngest person goes first.  We’ve played this game millions of times, so it was very peculiar for Ty to mention this.  So Fefe just brushed it off and they begin the game, Ty turns over his first card and it’s the ice cream cone.  Again, for the “Candy Land” impaired, the ice cream cone puts you maybe 5-8 spots away from the end of the game.  Now it is very strange that this would be the first card pulled, but I wouldn’t go and brand the boy a cheater based on this speculation alone.  Since I didn’t believe our son was the next Bill Belichick, Fefe was a little irked and decided to prove it to me.  She said that they were going to play another game; she had already told him to mix the cards and had been hiding out in the kitchen pretending to cook.  This would give him enough time to stack the deck.  I smell entrapment, but would never tell her that, lol.

We turn off the water that was ever so cleverly hiding our conversation from Ty and his super ears and we head back into the living room, all set for another round of “Candy Land”.  As soon as we sit down to play and I look at Ty’s face, I know that Fefe was right and I was terribly wrong.  Our son was a cheater.

Again, he quickly proclaims that he got to go first since he was the youngest. Once he took his turn, sure enough, wouldn’t you know it that darn ice cream cone popped up again. Ty even had the audacity to say “oh wow, I’m a really good player today”. I couldn’t believe it; he was cheating & being smug about it.  Well Fefe & I are the type of parents like you see on TV shows; you know the ones that go above & beyond to teach their kids a lesson? Yup, that’s us, and what a lesson we taught him.

Come back tomorrow for part 2 and to learn how we taught Ty the cheating lesson of his life.  But in the meantime, can you recall your first time cheating?  Was it in a game, in school?  Maybe you’ve never cheated, which I would highly doubt, but hey anything’s possible.  Leave your comments.