Thursday, April 1, 2010

Childhood Games, Stupidity Of

I had a thought today (Go ahead, get it out of your system, "Yay Matt!" "How did that feel?", etc.). The thought was this: Do you remember the game "Mother May I"? Well, it was one of those games kind of like "Simon Says" or "Red Light, Green Light", and, if my memory serves me correctly, it went something kind of like this:

One person was the "Mother". "Mother" stood some distance away from everyone else. Now, the objective of this game is to reach "Mother" and thereby become the new "Mother". One at a time, someone would ask "Mother" if they may come closer, asking in a variety of ways. For example, "Mother may I take 3 baby steps?" or "Mother, may I take 2 giant steps?", etc., at which point "Mother" may reply 'Yes' or 'No'.

Read that last sentence again.



IS THIS NOT THE STUPIDEST THING YOU'VE EVER HEARD?!?! Holy shit, this blew my mind. Each person needs to ASK the "Mother" if they may come closer and win the game and steal the position of power and "Mother" can just say 'No'!? Are ya' kidding me?! How is this a game?

I feel like this game was totally created by an older sibling as a trick. It's kind of like "The Quiet Game" that parents play with their kids. I can totally see an older sibling saying something like:

"HEY! I have an idea! Let's play a game! You go over there and ask me if you can come closer. If you touch me, you win."
"OK! Can I come closer?"
"No"

Somehow this "game" caught on with other people. I can only imagine that it was passed on from the older sibling to his older sibling buddies, and, through them, it was passed down to the younger sibling, and over time it became a "part of everyone's childhood". But when you think about it...

It's just stupid.

1 comment:

DF said...

I have seen this game in action (because I work with children, not because my social life is lame... well that too) and I know what the point is.

You get to decide who becomes the new mother. You can play favorites and hook your friends up while letting other children know that no, they are not cool enough. Should you be smart enough, you can even screw over the kids you don't like by leading them on and then smashing their dreams when you allow another friend a stunning last second victory ("Mother, may I take 14 steps to reclaim the lead and win the game?").

Probably thinking about this too much.