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Inspired by real life. Exaggerated for sanity.
If you’re laughing, it’s because you’ve been there.
With sincere thanks to our teens for the material.

our inspiration

inspiration

Parenting is hard. Worry, stress, and the constant effort to meet kids where they are come with the job. And while teenagers are beautifully unique humans, they all seem to share one uncanny trait: being exceptionally hard on their parents. We learned this firsthand. Each of our kids offered their own version of boundary-testing, patience-trying, emotional whiplash delivered with total certainty and absolutely no interest in our perspective.

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We made it through largely because we had a circle of friends who understood the chaos, compared notes, and reminded us that what felt personal was actually universal.

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Our hope is this game brings families together in the same way. Because “WHATEVER" never lands the way teens think it does usually paired with an eye roll and an exit  and when the thing you love most is pushing every button you didn’t know you had, sometimes the best response is humor, perspective… and choosing not to say the thing you’ll regret five minutes later.

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Your not doing it wrong it just feels like you are. 

HOW TO PLAY

OBJECTIVE

Earn you Ruined My Life Token. The first player to collect the correct number of tokens wins. Winning feels suspiciously like losing. This is normal

SETUP

  • Choose who will be the Teen first. (The youngest player works well, so does whoever feels the most dramatic.)

  • Everyone else is a Parent.

  • Shuffle all decks place within reach.

  • Place the You Ruined My Life tokens in the center. These will be handed out generously.

  • Each parent draws 10 Parent Response cards. 

1. SET THE SCENE

The Teen draws: 

  • 1 Parent Scenario Card

  • 1 Teen Mood Card
    The Teen reads both out loud. This is now the official story. 


 

2.  PARENT RESPONDS

You'll find lots of EMOTIONALLY TIRED cards because exhaustion is the baseline. Plenty of REALITY CHECKS because someone has to say it out loud. A solid set of CONSEQUENCES and NOT HAPPENING cards because choices eventually find you.  

Each parent secretly chooses one Parent Response card they believe is best.

"Best" may mean:

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  • Most accurate

  • Most unfair

  • Most irrational

  • Most likely to have happened last week. 

 

​Each Parent then lays face down in the center the "Best" card they have chosen from their hand.

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There are no wrong choices. There are consequences.


 

3. TEEN DECIDES

The Teen reviews all responses and selects

the winner based entirely on how it feels.

Criteria may include: 

  • What feels irrationally upsetting

  • What sounds emotionally correct

  • What annoyed you the most

 

The Teen does not have to explain their decision

and reads the winning Parent Response out loud. 


 

4. TOKEN AWARDED

The winning Parent receives one You Ruined My Life Token. This is not a victory. Accept it quietly. 


 

5. ROTATE ROLES

Pass the Teen role clockwise to  the next player. Everyone draws another Teen Scenario card to replace the one played.
Repeat until someone wins. 

 

6. WINNING

When a player collects the correct number of
You Ruined My Life Tokens. The game ends. 
4-6 Players: First 2 Tokens wins
7-8 Players: First 3 Tokens wins

 

Congratulations. You made the hard calls.
The game ends. Parenting teenagers does not
 

Expansion packs

Confidence without planning. Independence without budgeting.
Every decision feels correct. The bill says otherwise.

They call it experimenting.
You call it staying awake.

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