Organize your Kids' Turn Taking

I have received great wisdom from my in-laws with regard to settling turn-taking disputes between my children. My husband and his 2 brothers called it “Priority Day.” Each day someone has “Top Priority." The child with “Top Priority” for the day gets first choice for his/her cup color, who takes his/her bath first, whose room we read night time books in, who gets a toy first if they both want it at the same time, first pick for dessert plate, pushes elevator buttons, chooses whether to put the quarter in or take it out of the cart at Aldi’s, etc. etc. This system works wonders. There have been too many situations to count where I pulled “Priority Day,” out of my pocket when no other dispute resolution tool was working. There have also been several times when the dispute was SO heated that I never thought the "Priority Day" card would work and I witnessed in amazement at it’s power. My third born is 2 years old so I have been using Priority Day with only two kids up 'til now but my little guy just announced, “MY DAY,” so I think we are going to have to start working him into the rotation. Whoever has second priority gets second pick or first pick if the Top Priority child is not home. Occasionally, I do lose track so I will put initials on the calendar to make sure there are no disputes about who is Top Priority but as they get older my in-laws tell me that their boys NEVER forgot whose turn it was for Top Priority. I have heard of mothers doing it week by week but my kids are too young to feel the justice in that so we’ll stick with day by day for now.