Fewer Arguments

AND they get to practice their handwriting!

My brother and I always argued growing up about whose turn it was to take out the trash. I'm sure we argued about all other chores also, but I remember the trash in particular as being one assigned to us "every other day". I'm sure it would have worked fine except neither of us "remembered" when it was our day and always claimed it was the other's day to take it out. On the flip side, how do you decide who gets to have their story read aloud first? I didn't want to always decide based on who's oldest or who's youngest or who's cuter. So a few months ago we decided to make a daughter the "child of the day", to be alternated each morning. Since we only have two children, one day is the 5yr old's day, the next day is the 3yr old's, then the following day is the 5yr old's again. To remember I added an event to be the 5yr old's day in my phone's calendar to automatically repeat every two days and the alternate days to be the 3yr old's. Our girls also record the first initials on our wall calendars. Being the child of the day is highly desirable in our home, and the fact that if today's not her day then tomorrow will be helps both girls when her sister gets a privilege she'd really like for herself.
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The child of the day gets first choice for everything we have one of or have a favorite of. She gets first dibs on the princess bowl at breakfast, the seat next to Mama at church, the bedroom slept in at naptime, the book on cd played at bedtime.
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The child of the day gets first turn. I read the book she's chosen first at storytime. She gets to look at our morning devotional picture first. She gets to play on the computer first.
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The child of the day is my particular helper in the kitchen. I'm trying to include her at least once every day in preparing a meal. She gets to cut up the lettuce for our tacos. She gets to stir the muffin batter. She gets to crack the eggs into the bowl. Someway, somehow, I try to find at least one activity for the child of the day to do in preparing our food.
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The child of the day could potentially be a particular helper in other ways too, not always to her advantage. She could someday be the one who has to take out the trash, or who has to run errands or switch laundry from washer to dryer. But then, it will only be for that day: tomorrow she'll be relieved of the extra duties as her sister takes over. She knows that the disadvantages are hers only for today and they won't return for another two days.
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When one daughter wants to protest the advantages her sister has on her days, it's easy to point out that those same advantages will be hers again tomorrow. Both girls understand this clearly so their rare complaints are quickly resolved without resentment. This has worked so marvelously well for us that I would keep this system even if we had a dozen more children and they had to wait two weeks to be the child of the day again. And if I had 7 children, to avoid a particularly disadvantageous day being pegged to one individual and maintain a rotation, I would make Sundays "parents day".
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Linked to Works for Me Wednesday and Simple Lives Thursday