Bowling pin | figure:Comical Animals Ten Pins

Before radio and television dominated leisure time, parlor games served as a popular form of entertainment for adults and children. Adults enjoyed Blind Man's Bluff, charades, and other games that required logic and wordplay. On rainy or wintery days that prevented children from playing outside, parlor games served as an alternative. The 19th-century publication "Games and Sports for Young Boys" observed the following of table and parlor games: "Romps and gymnastics are sometimes forbidden by parents on account of the noise and confusion which accompany them, and it often happens that young people are puzzled to know what to do with themselves. The following games will enable our youthful readers to pass the time pleasantly and profitably without annoying their elders." Parlor games such as table tennis, table croquet, and nine pins thus kept children politely occupied within the home.