My husband and daughter made their first official bet last night. Yes, that’s a 42-year-old man betting an 11-year-old girl that she’s WRONG. To be fair, I was totally on his side until money hit the table. It was all over Emma’s favorite YouTube show, Good Mythical Morning. She described a story she saw there about “The World’s Unluckiest Man.” He’d survived bus, car & plane crashes, THEN went on to win the lottery. We told her there was no WAY anything that crazy could be true but she wasn’t backing down. Then the $20 gauntlet was thrown and I backed out. See, I know THE SECOND money gets involved that I am unequivocally wrong.

I learned this difficult lesson the hard way, TWICE.

The first time was about 20 years ago in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I was playing cards with my old boyfriend and another couple when the movie Big came up. There was some discussion about WHO played Tom Hanks’ grown-up girlfriend and I insisted it was Sean Young. This was back before smart phones so we couldn’t just pull up IMBD to find out. The debate got so heated at one point, that all four of us ended up in the front yard, screaming at each other. Well, they were mostly just screaming at ME. We finally made a $50 bet, then called Blockbuster and had them check the back of the video box. She was played by Elizabeth Perkins, of course. I paid my money and sulked for the rest of the night.

The next lesson came in the form of a Scattegories game against my husband. The letter was “D” and the category was “Body Parts.” My husband eschewed the obvious and went with Duodenum, a word I’d never heard before. I told him he made it up & he insisted it was real. I said, “Well what does this mysterious body part DO?” When he couldn’t tell me, I screamed “A-HA!” The fight got personal because he couldn’t believe I didn’t trust him. I couldn’t believe that he would lie to me for so long so I bet $20 that a Duodenum wasn’t a thing. We didn’t have a computer at home so I had to wait until I got to work the next day to check. I quietly paid my husband $20 that night.

I never bet money that I was RIGHT again. I came close a few times but was wrong in every instance. LESSON LEARNED.

So who won $20 last night? My husband and daughter watched the Good Mythical Morning episode together, then called a truce. The bet was dropped and my husband offered to buy breakfast for her in the morning instead. But was he wrong? Here’s the video so you can decide for yourself.