You Always Get To Pick :: Avoid Sibling Arguments

If you have more than one child, chances are pretty good that you’ve heard one of the following statements (usually in a whiny voice) from one or more of your children:

“You always get to pick the game, it’s my turn!”

“You always get to pick the TV show, I don’t want to watch this.”

“You always get to pick the music, I want to listen to my CD.”

When it comes to siblings, there is no telling what kind of silly things they will find to argue about - who picks the movie to go see, who gets the mail from the mailbox, who turns off the TV (yes, my kids have argued about this before), and who decides whether we go on a bike ride or play football.

As a parent, we try to mediate as many of these arguments as possible. The difficult part as a parent is settling the argument without favoring one child over another.

Earlier today I was reading through some information at All Pro Dad and came across an article that was discussing a Kid of the Week plan to avoid sibling arguments.

The general idea behind the Kid of the Week plan is that each child is assigned the status as the special “kid of the week” on a rotating basis. Whenever a situation comes up during the week, the current kid of the week gets the first selection.

Whenever mom or dad attempts to settle an argument, there is a good chance that at least one child will feel the decision is unfair. With a plan like the Kid of the Week, the children will have a means of settling their own arguments in a fair way that is easy to understand.

In our house, two of the biggest arguments are centered around video games and the television. Since we have somewhat strict rules about how much television our kids can watch and how long they can play video games, they each want to maximize their time watching their favorite shows or playing their favorite games. Using a plan like the Kid of the Week could be a perfect solution to these arguments.

How do your children settle their arguments?