Anonymous wrote:Dementia?

It does not have to be. my parents still talk sometimes about an epic Monopoly night they played in the mid 70's with some friends, all in their mid/late 30s' , among the players there was a couple (the hosts of the evening), both well regarded psychiatrists, and the wife was very type A competitive person. at a certain point her husband sold Park Place to whoever owned Boardwalk and she was so upset that she threw the board game off the table screaming at the husband, and the evening ended there. some people are just sore losers and should not play games if they cannot control themselves

This reminds me of one time an older female family member (late 60s/MAYBE early 70s) started crying and said we were cheating at playing spoons. Real tears! FWIW, we weren’t cheating.

My MIL is the same! When she's losing she just keeps trash talking the game: "this is such a stupid game!" "Why do you guys even like this?" "Did you really think this is fun?" "Who invented this piece of junk?"

This is unacceptable. My now 5 yo used to behave this way, and we’ve worked with her and modeled appropriate behavior so she’s down to sore losing only half the time. But she’s FIVE.

There are games I won’t play with DH though. He does get grumpy when he loses and sometimes gets mean when he wins, so I just avoid playing those games with him and he knows why. I would do the same with your MIL and tell her why.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get the problem. So she quit mid game. There is no reason why everyone else can't keep playing. Model the behavior you want to see. Don't react, just keep going. If you're allowing this to get under your skin and you're showing it to your kids then you're the problem for your kids not your MIL. Model to your kids that you can't control other people, you can only control yourself.

??What?? Now I’ve heard it all. So, now OP is supposed to pretend that she didn’t watch a grown adult throw a tantrum in her house?

I would tell my kids no games when grandma’s around. Puzzles or a movie night.

I do wonder if grandma is just generally grumpy? Is she the type to complain about the puzzle you chose or make negative comments about the movie? Is she just not a very pleasant person?

You're making stuff up. The MIL didn't throw a tantrum. She quit the game. Why on earth would you be hyperbolic about something that is easily proven. Go back and read OP's post. RIF.

NP here. She didn't say, "I'm bored, kids. I'm going to stop playing now."

"My 8 year old traded a property for hers... and she threw down her cards and said she was done."

Another time:

"She swiped the board after Risk and spent the night in her bedroom."

These are tantrums.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get the problem. So she quit mid game. There is no reason why everyone else can't keep playing. Model the behavior you want to see. Don't react, just keep going. If you're allowing this to get under your skin and you're showing it to your kids then you're the problem for your kids not your MIL. Model to your kids that you can't control other people, you can only control yourself.

??What?? Now I’ve heard it all. So, now OP is supposed to pretend that she didn’t watch a grown adult throw a tantrum in her house?

I would tell my kids no games when grandma’s around. Puzzles or a movie night.

I do wonder if grandma is just generally grumpy? Is she the type to complain about the puzzle you chose or make negative comments about the movie? Is she just not a very pleasant person?

You're making stuff up. The MIL didn't throw a tantrum. She quit the game. Why on earth would you be hyperbolic about something that is easily proven. Go back and read OP's post. RIF.