Oh Tish Tosh, Balderdash — Dictionary Is Best for Family Game Night

If you’ve never heard an 80+ year old woman giggle like a little girl, then I posit that you have not truly experienced all the joys that life has to offer. This is one of my favorite memories of Grandma B. She laughed a lot throughout her life, but after she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, seeing true joy on her face was much rarer event. So, if a game can get an 80+ year old woman with and annoying Parkinson’s frozen face mask symptom to laugh — then this is a game you have just got to try.

We’ve always called it Balderdash, but while Uncle Jay probably brought the board game to the beach one year, we’ve never to my knowledge used it. The game is actually based on an old parlor game called Dictionary and that’s pretty much all you need besides some paper, writing utensils, a great imagination, and some folks willing and able to make stuff up and pretend that it’s real.

It’s best for older kids and grown ups, but as long as a kid can make up a definition of a word, then they’ll be able to play. The team thing is always a good way to get kids in on it before they’re able to fully participate. So basically one person picks an obscure word from the dictionary that no one knows. They write down the correct definition and everyone else makes up ones. They put them in a bag and the picker reads them all out. Then everyone has to guess which one is correct. Scoring is however you want it, one point for being right, or for having your fake definition get the most votes. I don’t remember the specifics as is my personality type’s natural condition, but here is a great explanation of how to play from a site called CleverHive.