Emergency Entertainment, or: What’s in the games bag

Last week I mentioned that we have a bag or portable games for emergency entertainment and I thought it might be interesting to delve into this, so to speak.

A bit of context first. Eve and I both enjoy eating out and it didn’t really occur to us that we should stop doing this just because we had kids. Of course, no-one wants to be That Really Annoying Family With The Screaming Kids, so we tried to make sure that we would be able to keep the kids entertained while we waited for the food to arrive. Initially, this meant looking for restaurants with outdoor play areas (there used to be two locally, now only one — but it’s really good) and, later, ensuring we had paper and crayons to hand.

As the boys grew older, we have continued to bring our own entertainment when we go out for food, but this entertainment has veered towards multi-player card games. Our restaurant routine has now become one in which we sit down, decide what to play, order drinks, deal, order food and play until said food arrives.

It’s an approach that works for us and, I think, if we are all sitting around a decent sized table it’s a lot nicer to do something together rather than all lock ourselves into phones and tablets (actual quote from an actual waiter).

The bag itself has gone through several iterations. At one point, we had a lot of two-player travel games in it which was fine when the twins were too young to join in. But as they have grown older, these games have been replaced with multi-player games and the multiplayer games have all turned out to be card games, primarily because these are easy to transport and don’t take up too much space when played.

So, what’s currently in the bag?

First up, we have three puzzle games — one for each of the boys. These are designed to be played individually so if, for any reason, one or more of the boys doesn’t want to join in, they don’t have to. This is important because, to me at least, playing games should be something fun that we choose to do, no a chore to keep the kids quiet.

Next up is Uno. Uno is a great game and one that works really well when we are out and about. It’s compact, simple and can be played by any number of people.

Then we have The Monkey Poo game. Because a family that throws poo together is a family that stays together.

The most recent addition to the bag is Exploding Kittens. We played this on Sunday and it’s still going down a storm.

There are also a couple of trivia games (Harry Potter trivia and Dinosaur trivia, if you must know). These may not stay in the bag for much longer though as the twins tend to switch off quite quickly when they come out. We shall see.

And finally, we have a deck of bog standard playing cards. Four suits and thirteen cards per suit. And with one of these, you can play anything.

I keep thinking that we should also add Sushi Go to the bag. This is another multi-player party game that, on the face of it, should work well when we are out and about. The only problem is that once a round is played, everyone has to tot up their scores. This adds an extra layer of organisation that I have so far managed to avoid.

So over to you. If you’re a parent, how do you keep your kids entertained when you’re out and about?