Clinical psychologist Smriti Joshi says it’s common for adults who grew up experiencing validation around winning to form negative self-beliefs around perfection, performance, achievement and winning, often developing a “harsh inner critic” that makes them feel bad about losing.

One way to avoid this in the first place is to let children play and explore what they’re good at without any success criteria, says Dr Amanda Gummer, a child psychologist and author of The Good Play Guide. Then when it does come to losing, teach them to identify what was within their control and whether it was down to luck, talent or practice.

“Teach kids how to manage losing without it being traumatic and not ridiculing them because if you’ve tried your hardest and you lose, being ridiculed is horrible for self-confidence,” says Dr Gummer.

“But if you throw the dice and get a one every time, it’s not on you, and teaching kids to laugh that off is a good thing. You’ve got to use the [Scrabble] tiles [you’re given]; it’s the perfect analogy for life.”

Those that don’t learn this lesson can, in extreme cases, turn to cheating or develop a victim complex, she adds. In adulthood, this can manifest in using blame as a defence mechanism and an inability to take accountability for failures in exams, interviews and at work, Joshi explains.

Both George and I recognise this behaviour. She says she feels a sense of “injustice” if she encounters bad luck and neither of us will play games we’ve repeatedly lost. But where both of us fail, Lindsay Ephgrave succeeds. A self-confessed sore loser who once flipped the Monopoly board, she realised she needed to change her attitude while playing tennis with her son, 14, and Scrabble with her daughter, 11.

“I could feel myself getting cross when I wasn’t able to return a shot and I had to parent myself and think: ‘You need to encourage it because it’s good that he’s good.’ And when someone gets a good word in Scrabble my daughter will say, ‘Well done!’ and genuinely mean it. So I can learn something from her – when I say ‘Well done!’ it’s through gritted teeth.”

Can you learn to be better at losing? One self-confessed sore loser explains