I recently wrote a piece on "family game night" and decided we should give it a try. I borrowed a friend's Monopoly game thinking the money aspect of it might help my son, Tyler, with his math.

I announced to my husband, Jerry, one Friday night that we were going to play. He looked a little weary but nodded solemnly as he contemplated his sentence.

Jerry might have been a little psychic because, honestly, it didn't go well for him from the very beginning. His first trip around the board he landed on the income tax square, the luxury tax square, and drew a "Chance" card where he was assessed, yep, a tax.

He was truly discouraged.

"This is too much like real life," he said.

Two hours later, he was almost bankrupt. He only had five, 10s and ones left. He'd completely lost what little sense of humor he had left after working all day.

"I'm going to bed," he said.

The next morning, Tyler and I continued the game; that night Tyler wanted to start a fresh game.

By then, I was pretty weary of Monopoly myself, so I threw my husband under the bus.

"Tyler, I don't think Dad wants to play again after last night when he ran out of money. Why don't we think of something else to play? Or we could just watch TV for a little while." God, I missed television.

Tyler went upstairs, and we thought that was the end of it. Ten minutes later he presented Jerry with a blank Star Wars valentine with Yoda on the front.

"Dad, here," he said, handing it to Jerry. "It's a credit card. You can use it in Monopoly if you run out of money again."

I added "credit cards" to the mental checklist of things I needed to teach Tyler regarding money. I would explain credit cards right after I went over (again) why the ATM doesn't just dispense money any time to whoever needs it. (If only.)

The next weekend, I decided to try a shorter game. We settled on "Clue." As I was explaining the murder-mystery game, it occurred to me it was a lot like the evening news - and, frankly, the pipe, rope, revolver, knife, wrench and candlestick made me nervous.

It's hard to go back to Candy Land after that.