My son Nate is 9 and he's getting to the point where he can beat me pretty consistently in video games. The worst part is that he's learned to talk smack while doing it. We were playing last week and started calling the games before we'd play them, like Babe Ruth pointing to the stands before a home run. I was keeping up with him pretty well at that point so I thought I'd take him down a notch. I told him that if he lost the game, then he'd owe me one chore and if he won, I'd do one of his chores for him. (I know, I'm laying the groundwork for my son to become a degenerate gambler). Anyways, I lost the wager and tried for a double-or-nothing kinda bet to even things up. I ended up two chores down, and the chore he chose was for me to clean his room. It was trashed, so I waited a couple of days.
He took great joy in the fact that it kept getting messier as the days went on. I finally cleaned it and had one chore hanging out there. Last night, we were playing another game, and I was on a streak, four in a row, feeling pretty confident. I decided to even things up and do double or nothing on the one chore I owed him, hoping I'd be done. Things changed quickly, I lost, and now I still owe him. A week later, it was even more trashed, so I cleaned it again tonight. I still owe him one. I'm trying to explain to him whole concept of "treat others the way you want to be treated" and asking him what he thinks I'll choose as a chore when the tables finally turn. He told me that he'll never bet another chore again, so he has nothing to worry about. Maybe I've taught him never to gamble?
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