A future merchant banker

Ottawacker Jr. has recently taken a shine to an old game of Mrs Ottawacker, Stock Ticker. 

Now, as I may have said the odd million times, I hate board games. If golf is a way to ruin a perfectly good walk, then board games are the way to ruin a perfectly good evening. 

Let's all sit down and pretend we are having fun, pretend we are not too competitive, and pretend we don't really care about the outcome.

I come from a family where my stepmother stood up and sent a Trivial Pursuit board and cards and pies flying across the room because she got a question wrong and enabled my father to win. The guests and fellow participants - including a bishop if I remember correctly - sat there gobsmacked, picking little pieces of Vache-qui-rit shaped piece of plastic out of their drinks and card out of their hair. 

So when Ottawacker Jr. expressed a desire to play games that were a touch more competitive than Head Bandz and Snakes and Ladders (mind you, I really hate Snakes and Ladders), I was rather tentative in my agreeing to play.

But I did, I always do, and our family unit has survived Uno (just), Sorry (because I usually win) and Trouble (because Ottawacker Jr. is genuinely so happy to be playing it that not much else matters). 

But Stock Ticker is something different. It combines all my bête noires in on oversized box: board games, finance, dice rolling, etc. On top of that, it takes forever to play. Seriously, you start this game after dinner and end up having to shave before you've finished. Needless to say, Ottawacker Jr. loves it and, sickeningly, has won all five games we have played. 

I remember this because he now has a booklet in which he keeps scores. And they make sober reading.