Listen to your kids in the escape room
Before you ask for a clue to solve a puzzle, listen to your kids in the escape room to see if they have an idea.
Trust us, we learned this escape room secret from years of playing.
You see, before becoming an escape room owner, one typically starts as an escape room enthusiast.
Long before we dreamed of opening Locktopia Houston, we played several other escape rooms across the United States as a family.
On two different occasions, when we asked for a clue, the response was, “Listen to your son.”
Our then ten-year-old son had been desperately trying to tell us the answer, and we ignored him.
The very next time we solved a room together, I did it again. When we asked for a clue, the game master told us to “listen to your son.”
How did we ignore him twice?
Now that we are on the other side of the screen, I see that we aren’t the only family that fails to take the suggestions of its younger members.
I have given the hint “listen to your kid” in the escape room when a family is stuck on a clue.
Why do we ignore our young players?
Well, for starters, as parents, we often think we know more than they do. We are forgetting that escape rooms are a ton of fun, but they can also be high-stress scenarios.
You are doing something you have never done before, you don’t know all the rules exactly, and you have a time limit. What is NOT stressful about that?
As the game master, I know all of the answers to the room, and it’s always fascinating to see the light bulb go on in a kid’s eyes when they figure out a piece to the puzzle.
I also watch them fumble to get the attention of the adults in the room and find the words to communicate what they just figured out.
We often overlook the fact that they think differently from how we do.
Then there are times when they grasp the puzzle or the solution to what it is, but then get distracted by someone else’s idea in the room before they can convey enough words for their family group to even realize that they had an answer.
Beyond having family fun in a Houston escape room, listening to your kids can have a positive impact on their development, according to experts.
They might surprise you, or maybe not, because you knew your children are awesome anyway!