The Stubborn Player

On Saturday, Ricki asked me to play the game “Trans America” with her. This is basically a strategy game, which sometimes I play with her older brothers. But I agreed, and sat down to play. But as we played, I noticed that often she was putting her train tracks in very odd places. Her moves were guaranteeing her a loss. So I begged her to let me help her a few times, to explain, etc. She sort of agreed. I could latterly see the battle crossing her face, between her desire for independence and her desire to win. At first th quest for independence won out. Then, suddenly, I noted that she was looking at the map cards carefully… she was trying to lay the tracks as the rivers she saw drawn on the map!
Eventually, she let me give her a few hints (I was carefully saying “notice this and this...”, “What is better if you want to do so and so?”), and she won the last round to her (and my) great pleasure.