Party Games

A lot of people think that TikTok is just a place to do dance challenges. If that were the case, I probably wouldn't love it; I'm there for the teen witch inside me, the "mature and thoughtful" kid in me who grew up too fast, the me with niche interests and other... reasons. There's a lot more than you think, and there's SO much positivity due to all of the Millennials and Zoomers. But if you DO enjoy the dancing challenges, you might like this party game.

It's a cute handmade game an Etsy seller, MadeByMedlen, made, and an instant download so you could print it and play it immediately. You use the board game to do different dance movies. It looks so retro and fun that I'm thinking about getting it myself!

What games do you recommend this week? Share them in the chat.

Last weekend we found ourselves in a very awkward position. Firstly, I had been up all night working and overslept, making my teen late to host the monthly zoom game with friends. Then none of our computers would work, followed by zoom itself not working! Once we finally got in 10 minutes late, the online game my kiddo had chosen wasn't working, either! Insert scream.

We actually had a couple of kids leave. It was that bad. Then every game suggested didn't work. To be clear, the kids are all supposed to bring a game idea to play but they rarely do, and my kiddo hadn't planned a backup. Everything I suggested was also killed. They didn't get to playing until half an hour in!

By then I had them playing Would You Rather, but they just weren't into it. It was a disastrous game night (although not our worst) and made me remember how much backups matter.

So what are your favorite backup games for zoom calls? Share the best you've played in the chat.

The number of available games, from video games to board games and even RPGs, grows every single week. It's difficult to stay on top of all of the new games to try as so many are released one after another. People are even using Kickstarter to build games from home to help explode this market.

With so many games to choose from, it's no wonder many of the older ones get pushed back and ignored. Honestly some of them have become stale. Apples to Apples is great to use with people you don't know well, but once you've played any variation of Cards Against Humanity (and the many games with a similar premise), it's just not as much fun with well-known company anymore. That said, there are plenty of underrated older games that are still really fun to play at parties.

My favorites have always been Scattergories and Taboo, but I have to say I have an unfair advantage with my middle sister. If you have lots of inside jokes with a person, you can easily get them to say a word while making everyone else scratch their heads!

What older, underrated games do you love?

We're coming up upon one of our big birthday seasons in our family. We have a big chunk of our family born in the spring, and then another in the fall. We'd love to come up with some creative ways to celebrate via Zoom.

Fortunately after almost a year of distancing, many parents have come up with lots of creative games to play from video sharing. (I always say Zoom because it's what people are most familiar with, but I honestly mostly use Google Meet.) I still remember the first birthday we celebrated during the pandemic. That young man had many friends and family on the call, as well as pets!

What kinds of birthday games do you like to play via video conference? Share them in the chat.