How to Play the Board Game Beat the Parents

It’s kids vs grown-ups in this fun-filled trivia challenge. 2 plus players ages 6 and up.

We like trivia games but don’t take them too seriously; ones we’ve tried included Anomia, Pictopia and Christmas Trivia. When a friend introduced us to Beat the Parents we were excited to try it.

In this post we’ll tell you how to play, what the rules are, how to shorten the game, what we liked, what we didn’t like and let you know if you think you should add Beat the Parents to your family game shelf.

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The Object of Beat the Parents

The game is simple in idea: answer questions and move your token across the board to the other side. The kids play as one team and the parents play as the other team.

The Beat The Parents Cards

There are three types of cards to this game.

First, are the questions cards. These cards have a parent side and a kid side. The questions have a range of regular trivia type questions such as, “what is the Indian currency called”, to pop culture questions such as “Harry Potter house names” and “name the monkey in Dora the Explorer”.

Second are the kid questions. These questions are set at a kid level with questions such as how many hours are in a day.

But some of the questions on both the parents’ and kids’ side are a little trickier.

Wild Cards

There are two types of wild cards—the parents’ and the kids’. These cards are also double ended. These cards can send you either forward in the game or backwards.

Playing Beat the Parents

The kids get to go first. The parents choose the first card off the pile and read the first question. If the kids answer correctly, they move one space forward and the parents ask the second question.

Again, if they answer correctly, the kids move forward and earn the last question on the card. The third question can have the kids moving forward yet another spot.

However, if at any time a team does not answer correctly, they do not move forward and their turn is over.

Next, it’s the parents’ turn. Again, if they answer correctly, they move forward and get another question.

Teams can only move one mover in a turn. For the second and third questions, you must move the same mover as you did in the first question.

Once one of your movers reaches the other side of the board, then your turn is over.

Bumping

If you land on a space that is already occupied by the other team, then you bump their mover back two spaces.

The Wild Spots

When you land on a wild card spot you get a card that matches the side that you are on. For example, if you are on the parents’ side of the board you get a red wild card.

If you are on your own side, then you get the card when you land on the space. However, if you are on the other side of the board, you only get the card if you end your turn on the wild card spot.

The cards are designed to move you forward on your side but backwards on the other side.

Winning Beat The Parents

The first team to get both of their movers to the other side of the board is the winner.

Shorter Games

To play a shorter game, you can only use one mover per side.

What We Like

First, the kids love to play against the adults. Next, we like that there are different levels of questions for the parents and the kids. This is great because the trivia is set to make it easier or harder (depending on how you look at it).

We also like the fun wild cards; “You crashed your skateboard into the garage door and now it won’t open.” They adds humor and fun to the game.

Last, we like that the trivia is not too hard.

What We Don’t Like

First, it maybe that our kids are now teenagers but it seems like the kids’ questions are a lot easier than the parents’. This has made for some pretty lopsided games. Of course, the kids love this fact. To fix this, we have a rule that if all players are on the parents’ side of the board then the kids have to answer questions from the parents’ side of the card. This made it more fair.

Next, the questions are a little dated. We did buy our copy second hand so it wasn’t the current copy. Is Dora still a thing? And I’m pretty sure Ni Hao Kai Lan is a thing of the past (although I did get that question right and I still know how to count to three in Chinese after all these years.) Now that I think about it, maybe it is better for us that our copy is outdated—we wouldn’t know the current younger kid shows!

Is Beat the Parents Worth it?

Is there a better feeling in the world when you are a kid and you beat your parents at a game—especially a TRIVIA game? The thrill, the gloating, the sulky faces on your parents….

And as a parent, getting to see your kids win a trivia game against you is, well not as magical as it is if you were the kids, but the feeling of pride you feel is pretty good. Plus, you get to see what your kids know, and find new things to talk about. A good win for parents even if they loose the game.

So, yes we say that Beat the Parents is worth adding to your Family Game Shelf (but maybe not if your kids are teens—they don’t need the extra boost of being right!).

To get your copy of Beat the Parents, shop here. And Canadians can shop here for Beat the Parents.

For more trivia games see our reviews of Anomia, Pictopia and Christmas Trivia. We also have seasonal trivia games in our Family Game Shelf shop that add fun and learning to holidays.

And after being beat by your kids, you can try your luck at some card games and dice games, you know to feel better about life.

Rating:

Pros: Easy to play, short version, not too hard
Cons: can be outdated, older kids have an advantage,
Mom: trivia, getting to see your kids beat you