I have a confession to make. I never cheated at Pick-up Sticks. But don’t ask my daughter – she won’t believe you.
But first of all, how can you cheat at such a game? Second, why would you even bother? It’s Pick-Up Sticks, for goodness sake.
When my daughter was younger (translated – more than a week ago), we would play this game called Pick-Up Sticks. Maybe you remember it. It’s an actual game that you buy at the store and everything.
The object is to pick up the sticks, one at a time, without moving any other stick. There’s one black stick. If you get that one, you can use it to help you move the sticks.
So how could my daughter think I cheated at such a simple game?
Well, I might have given her that impression . . .
At the beginning of the game, when you first dump the sticks on the table, there are a few easy ones to get. So there was no problem.
But then it would get trickier and trickier . . .
When it came time to try to get some of the hard sticks, I went through this routine. During that time, I was writing a lot of newspaper stories. My daughter knew this. So when we were playing Pick-Up Sticks, I would interlock my fingers, stretch my arms waaaaaaay out (Pop. Pop. Pop, went the knuckles), then I would wiggle my fingers in front of me, my hands hovering just above the pile of sticks.
And then I would do the worst thing of all . . . I would say, very tauntingly, “I’m gooooinnng to use my Tyyyyyypinnnng Fiiiinnnngers . . . ”
Like as if that was an advantage.
But it didn’t matter – my daughter thought it was.
Then I would either pick up a stick or end up losing my turn. All the while, my daughter would be wailing, “That’s not fair! That’s not FAAAAAIR!”
Ahhhhhh. Those were the days . . . the days when I could annoy my daughter with such easy and simple techniques.
Now I have to do things like siphon the gas out of her car or wash her reds and whites together. In hot water.
Yes, we may not play Pick-Up Sticks any more. But I still have my Typing Fingers.
Holding together the jello 
Haha that is really funny! I am glad I am not the only one that gets enjoyment out of teasing my kids, trouble is it can really bite you back on the nose sometimes. I remember as a kid I used to copy my mother, everything she was saying, I know she used to just get so mad with me for doing it, but I thought it was so funny. Guess what? My kids started in unison, both of them doing it to me out of nowhere I had not told them of what I used to do and it drove me insane with annoyance LOL. As for cheating, we have suddenly gotten in to monopoly, my youngest is obsessed with it, I swear he is going to be some wheeler and dealer when he is older. However, for some odd reason and no I don’t cheat though having the bank nearby is tempting in times of trouble, my eldest especially just thinks its funny in a very convincing way to involve my youngest son by pointing out how much money I ‘still’ have, I must have cheated getting that much, I must have somehow slipped an extra street on to my pile inbetween games on tea breaks, etc etc, and puts those ideas in to his head and then the youngest sparks up believing him, shouting “CHEAT CHEAT” getting almost hysterical and the game then takes on rather a darker atmosphere as I explain I am not a cheat. Eventually when an argument then occurs, my eldest finally admits he was just teasing me, but listen to this, he decides he doesn’t want to play monopoly any m ore because it causes too many arguments?????? I look at him and say “really, I wonder why?”