As a mum 4/4

As part of a 4 part run on how i see board games as a mum

4.  Ease.

Ok well this one doesn't really need a full entry of its own but i said i was going to do it so here it is.
Ease.  I am at my core somewhat lazy, but also when it comes to games a little OCD.
I package and store my games so that they are at their easiest to set up whenever we want to play them.  Games that are said to take half an hour to set up like 'Arkham Horror' take no more than ten minutes for us.

When it comes to playing with the kids, there's more to it than just being lazy, there's attention spans to deal with.  If the game takes too long to set up they will wander off and lose interest, i know this from experience.  In addition, if the game takes too long to set up after one play through...who wants to go through all that again...well the kids do of course they aren't he ones who need to set it up are they.
So when i look at a game i look at the east with which the components are handled, how quickly it goes together, or is set up and whether that time is worth it against the time of game play.
It might seem like a silly little thing but it makes a difference.

The one last thing that doesn't really come under 'ease' but i'm not making a category of its own.  Noise.  I suppose you could say it comes under the ease of tolerance because that's my problem here.  Hungry Hippos, one of the most horrible games ever made, it's noisy, impossible to keep the pieces together and i spend all my time cringing that the hippos will break at being hit so hard.  If the game is loud, i tend to leave it on the shelf these days too.