By Rick Rader, MD

The Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw was an avid chess player who obviously got his clock cleaned (frequently) by many superior opponents. In fact, he mused, “Chess is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something very clever when they are only wasting their time.”  Idle people indeed. Idle people like Isaac Asimov, Napoleon Bonaparte, Sir Francis Bacon, Catherine the Great, Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin. All avid chess players. Idle indeed.

The game of Chess, believed to be over 2000 years old, has quite the following. In fact, the way we live our “lives” is often been compared to a game of chess. We often feel like “pawns,” being moved around by “rulers” (Kings and Queens) and never seem to be able to strategize more than one or two moves ahead. Many of us are made to feel like we could be quickly sacrificed to enable another to obtain a better board position. We are usually one move away from being tipped over and removed from the playing field. Things are often seen as simply black or white. We’re simply waiting for the sound of “checkmate” to end it all. But still we play.

And it’s not just chess. Humans love board games, and it seems as if they have always been part of the human affinity. The game Senet is one of the oldest known board games in the world. We have hieroglyphics demonstrating the game going back to around 3100 BC in ancient Egypt. The game has been found in tombs indicating that it was a kind of talisman for the journey of the dead. You really have to love the game to remember to pack it for that trip.

The game of Go, originating in ancient China is the most popular game in Asia. The number of Go players worldwide approaches thirty million. It is considered one of the most difficult board games in the world. The rules are easy; the requisite strategy is mind blowing. One description of the game was enough for me to realize my comfort level was more checkers than Go. “Players strive to serve both defensive and offensive purposes and choose between tactical urgency and strategic plans. At its basic, the game is one of simple logic, while in advanced play the game involves complex heuristics and tactical analysis.” Sign me up for checkers.

Board games are enjoying incredible growth in popularity. According to reporter Rachael Bogert, “During bad economic times, board games and the family game night start to make a whole lot of sense as a way to entertain everybody on the cheap. In other words, when times are lean, we’re stuck with each other, so we might as well have some fun while we’re at it.”

Following the terrorist attacks on 9/11 there was an almost universal need (at least in America) to “connect” and “cocoon,” two dynamics that have “board games at home” written all over them.

Michael Mindes, a board game designer, offers some emotional reasons for playing board games.   “Board games create a framework within which we can interact with our friends in a friendly competition. Board games require us to think, experiment, and otherwise exercise our minds. They provide us a way to escape from our current lives. They provide a desired experience that we cannot obtain in real life. Board games provide an easy way to have fun with family and friends in a personal way. It is not as personal as direct conversation or sports, but it is significantly more personal than watching a movie, television, or playing video games.”

Most board games involve both luck and strategy, two elements coveted by every exceptional parent. Another vital component in some board games is “diplomacy,” players making deals with each other. Again, a skill honed by many exceptional parents.

Board games that would be most familiar to exceptional parents include Monopoly, Risk, Scrabble, Battleship, Backgammon, Sorry!, Clue, Chutes and Ladders and Candy Land. The very names of some of these games resonate with parents of children with special needs. They have heard “Sorry” all too many times, have been forced to take a “Risk,” are always searching for “Clues,” and wish they didn’t encounter systems that seem to have a “Monopoly” on indifference, ineptitude and ignorance. 

Of the list, the game that should have a considerable legacy to exceptional parents is Candy Land. First marketed in 1949 as a “sweet little game for sweet little folks,” Candy Land rose from the terrifying polio epidemic of the mid-twentieth century.  Writing in the American Journal of Play, Susan Trien reports, “Schoolteacher Eleanor Abbott invented Candy Land in 1948 while recuperating in a polio ward in San Diego. Seeking to help children allay the tedium of the ward, her simple, undemanding game required only that the players be able to recognize colors and count, and could be easily played without adult supervision in the bustling hospital ward. In this open-ended, looping game, the Cherry Pits and Molasses Swamp act as gentle delays, prolonging the game’s ending and making it an ideal way to keep children quiet and happy.  One of the earliest Candy Land boards, in fact, appears to have a picture of a child in a leg brace, a detail that disappeared in subsequent printings.  The 1950s polio scare produced parental panic—swimming pools emptied, parks cleared out, civic events were deserted. People stayed away from crowds. And parents kept kids indoors. Frightened parents seeking to prevent their children’s exposure may have seized upon the game as an indoor alternative to the dangers lurking outside.”

Keeping children with disabilities from the “dangers lurking outside” is a full time job for exceptional parents, and it’s far from a game. The reality is that you cannot keep children inside or safe from danger. And while board games are great diversions, there comes a time when you have to lay down the dice and move your pieces ahead. No one ever promised you that this was “Candy Land.”  But no one ever accused exceptional parents of being “idle game players.”