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KIDS VS GROWN-UPS

Gift for a Family Game Night That Lasts a Year: Kids vs Grown-Ups

By Joshua S. Brogley · September 5, 2026

Part of the series Best Book Gifts for Men Who Say They Do Not Need Anything

A family game night gift usually lasts one night, because the game gets played once and shelved. Kids vs Grown-Ups is a game night that lasts a year: two teams, one house, three hundred sixty-five days, the grown-ups have to play too and the kids keep score. The Day 6 page, read out loud like every page, sets the rule: you get a point for doing the thing on the page, not for doing it perfectly and not for doing it first, and if you tried and it went wrong that still counts, and today we practice saying so.

How it plays

One page a day, read aloud by whoever can read. A Team Kid challenge worth points and a Team Grown-Up challenge worth points, and the challenges are small and real: say one true thing, write a secret tidying mission for the other team and seal it until tomorrow, make the fun mission not the mean one. Some days everybody forgets, and the Day 14 page handles that too: that is normal and not a reason to stop, the rule is you never start over, you just carry on. The score runs all year and the kids will remember who is winning when the adults have forgotten there is a game.

What it is actually doing

Getting the household to do the small daily things, the tidying, the true sentence, the shared table, the apology practiced, inside a frame where the adults are accountable to the children, which is the only frame in which children take it seriously. It is a family habits book disguised as a game and the disguise is load-bearing. The gift for a whole family post covers the same book from the parents' side; getting kids to do chores is one of the things it quietly fixes.

Which families

Families with children roughly five to twelve, where at least one can read the page aloud. Families where the evening dissolves into screens and nobody quite knows how it happened. Grandparents who have the kids weekly and want a thing that is theirs. Blended households, where a shared scoreboard does what a family meeting cannot. And any family where a parent has noticed that the children build their foundations out of repeated small things, and wants a repeated small thing.

More on the shelf

The gift for a couple is the version for two; for your dad and for a new dad are the father's books; they'll remember the ordinary is the argument for a boring ritual held for years, which is what a year-long game turns out to be.

Kids vs Grown-Ups

365 days of the best game in the house: Team Kid vs Team Grown-Up, daily challenges, real points, monthly showdowns.

Buy it on Amazon See the book

What is a good family game for every day?

Kids vs Grown-Ups: one page a day read aloud, a challenge for each team worth points, a score that runs all year, and the rule that you never start over, only carry on. The grown-ups have to play too, which is why the kids take it seriously.

How do you get a family to do small things together daily?

Put the adults on a team accountable to the children and keep score. A point for doing the thing, not for doing it perfectly, turns tidying, true sentences and apologies into a game the household actually plays.

written by the author, at the kitchen table, after work.