Rock, Paper, - LOOK OUT!!!

What Beats Everything?

Don’t ever play Rock Paper Scissors with my kids.


It started innocently enough, like so many things around here.

It was a lazy Saturday morning and we decided to eat out for breakfast. We were at a local restaurant which normally serves food up pretty fast, but they were apparently having to round up the cows for milking and were still negotiating the contract for eggs with the newly organized chickens.

As a result the wait for our food was getting a little long. The kids, having already gotten bored with sugar packet stacking, sugar packet table top football, sugar packet tick tack toe, and guess what hand has the sugar packet, were about to launch a full scale rebellion along with about half the customers in the place.

So we started a game of Rock Paper Scissors. We figured it might even come in handy if someone had to run to the car and to try to scramble for some random crayons and paper.

After explaining how to play, we paired off, me with Sierra and Daddy with Mireya. We figured you can play a whole lot of Rock Paper Scissors and before the fun wears off.

But talks must have broken down with the chickens, because food was nowhere in sight.

Then Sierra, who at ten is intensely competitive, invented a new element to Rock Paper Scissors. Just a little something to give herself an edge.

“One, two, three, CLAW!” she growled, extending what did look like a pretty fierce claw.

“Claw?” I asked. “What does claw beat?”

“Paper and scissors!” she said triumphantly, shredding my now defenseless paper. “It’s a tiger claw,” she clarified.

“Cool!” said Mireya who had stopped in mid game to watch me get shredded. I could guess what her next move would be when she played with Daddy. As usual I underestimated her.

Mireya turned to her opponent. “Ready, Daddy?”

Daddy loosened his shoulders like a boxer preparing for the final round. He cracked his knuckles. He looked like a man that was ready to be mauled by the dreaded claw.

“One, two, three...” they chanted.

“Tornado!” shouted Mireya, whirling her hand around, utterly obliterating Daddy’s scissors.

“What? Wait a minute! Tornado?” said a perplexed Daddy.

“Tornado beats everything,” said Mireya.

Tough to argue with that.