I spend at least two hours a week playing games. From endless games of “Toy Story” Memory, to our own special version of Headbands, we’re all about games in my house.

Growing up we never played games. My mother hated them because she found them boring. I think the real reason was that games – like most other things that involved me and my sister – inevitably ended in tears or a screaming fit when someone was busted cheating. I don’t cheat, but my sister is another story entirely. She would deny it, but cheaters typically do.

So I don’t have any concept of certain games, like grown-up card games. But I can play Connect Four with the best of them, and I believe UNO is the best way to find out who your true friends are. Really want to know who your friends are? Play drunken UNO. It’ll ruin weak friendships in a heartbeat.

I might not have played games in high school, but I have memories of marathon sessions in front of the Monopoly board, and tons of trash talking during Scrabble and Boggle as I got older.

And if you really want to know fear, then play Perfection. I am pretty solid when it comes to knowing my shapes, but when there’s that ticking timer going, you lose your mind a little and before you know it, those little yellow pieces are all over the floor and you’re fighting a heart attack. The fact that “Santa” will likely place that under our Christmas tree this year might mean I am the worst mother in the history of the world. But that game builds character and nerve.

There is actually a point to this story, funnily enough.

While you might argue and fuss over cheating – and let me tell you, 4 ½-year-olds are all about some cheating – games are a great way to build up relationships and spend some quality time together. And it’s a thing that can work for anyone. Friends can have marathon game nights; you can play cards with your boyfriend, or get a couple bottles of wine and a Scrabble board and have your girlfriends over for some trash talking and game playing.

And just so you know, trash talking is half the fun of playing games – a fact that I am currently teaching my son. I should probably start preparing myself for the notes from school now.