Moms Talk: Playing Candyland Without Losing Your Mind

Muskego Patch invites you and your circle of friends to help build a community of support for parents and their families right here in Muskego.

Each week in Moms Talk, our Moms Council of experts and other smart parents take your questions, give advice and share solutions.

Moms, dad, grandparents, and the diverse families who make up our community will have a new resource for questions about local neighborhood schools, the best pediatricians, 24-hour pharmacies and the thousands of other issues that arise while raising children.

Moms Talk will also be the place to drop in for a talk about the latest parenting hot topic. Do you know of local moms raising their children in the Tiger Mother's way and is it the best way? Where can we get information on local flu shot clinics for children? How do we talk to our children about school violence like shootings and bullying? How can we help our children's schools weather their budget cutbacks?

So grab a cup of coffee and settle in as we start the conversation today with a question I asked my mom when my kids were small:

The kids love playing Candyland, but it can take forever to finally reach the top of the mountain. How can parents still play their child's favorite game without losing an entire day or their sanity?

Here is what my mom told me:

Stack the deck. 

No, seriously. Look at the board and where the special cards - the ice cream cone or the lollipop - fall. Arrange those cards in order from the bottom of the board to the top and then insert them into the deck top to bottom. Make sure there are 5 or 6, even 10, regular play cards - the colored squares - in between the special cards. 

This way, playtime still consists of Candyland, but it will only take 20 or 30 minutes. And because there's no telling who will pull which card, the winner is still up for grabs.