Who Gets to Sit Where in the Car? Taking Turns Generally

Jacob and Gabriel used to have big arguments over who sat where in the car. For some reason, they prefer to sit diagonally from me whether I'm driving or a passenger in the front seat. They say they like to see me, lol. In any event, we used to try to deal with this by making sure they took turns each ride. E.g., if Jacob sat diagonally from me in the morning, Gabriel could sit there in the afternoon. But it got too hard to keep track of who sat where, like if the hubby picked them in afternoon and didn't know where they sat in the morning or if we took a side trip to the grocery store after school and got in/out of the car several times that day.

So, last year we finally came up with this: Jacob gets to choose where to sit all day on odd days, and Gabriel gets to to choose where to sit all day on even days! I don't know why it took us so long to come up with this. I guess Jacob gets a slight advantage for 31-day months and the first of the following month, but that's just how it goes.

When it comes to computer time, they get 15 minutes each - and that time ends when the timer beeps and says so.

There's still whining at the car and at the computer when it's not someone's turn anymore, but at least we're consistent, lol.

Anyone else come up with solutions for these kind of situations?

 

Yes, we do evens/odds. On odds Lu goes first for everything--good OR bad. So she gets to brush her teeth first, turn on the Christmas tree, get the first shot, pick the music CD, etc. Even days are O's days. They haven't noticed the 31st/1st thing yet, and I am not going to point it out.

 

We do even and odd days too! I have one extremely dominant and he always wanted the seat directly behind me. I thought the other could care less until only he had to go in the car w/ me and chose to sit directly behind me where brother usually sits. so now we switch days. We also use even/odd days when there is a movie to pick, game to play etc...
You are not alone... :unsure:

 

In our house, the prime seat is behind the driver. Go figure - and we even tried to convince them that from the passenger side they could actually see me or DH better. They wouldn't go for it.
They trade driver's side every other day. The other one gets to go first that whole day, and gets to choose things if there's a choice - such as the bedtime CD they both listen to. If we get off track, we just tell them we're starting over TODAY -- but that's only happened a handful of times.

 

We haven't done even/odds, although that's a great suggestion. So far, they just sit where they happen to sit. However, I do make Hayden and Brady sit in the middle row, because if they had the open of two rows of seats and two sides (and the middle), then we definitely would have trouble with decisions and arguments!

For computer and video games, we use a timer. The boys are all excellent about setting their timer and sticking to it. And somehow, they always work out who goes first without any input from me. I'm not sure how I lucked out with that one!!

 

Hmm, never needed any tactics but great ideas if I ever do. They have been in the same seat in the car since the day they came home from the hospital and think nothing of it. Whoever gets to the bathroom and has their toothpaste on their toothbrush first gets brushed first, the other one goes to the bathroom first. Computer, whoever asks to play goes first.

 

I'm wondering why this was never a huge issue with my girls. :huh: I'm thinking it must have been because Caitlin was very "this is what I want" and Sarah was very much a go with the flow type, though they've changed a bit on that now. I think my girls normally just climbed in and got into a seat but if there had been a problem, I probably would have done the even odd thing as well. Also, for a long time, Logan sat in the middle row seat and the girls were in the back, so they weren't right behind me--that might be why they had less of an issue with it. I did it that way at first because Logan was only 3 and needed my attention more during car rides than the girls did as infants. I also used to put them in from the back hatch (I had a Quest) when their seats were rear facing. Since their car seats were pretty big, they didn't fit well in the middle seat anyway since it was a 2-seat bench.

I was just thinking that if the odd/even thing seemed unfair because of there being more odd days, you could do an every other week thing, but that's probably asking little kids to wait a long time for their turn.

 

We put my mom through the whole seat things as kids. Everyone wanted to sit up front. Now that isn't an option. With all 4 of mine still in some kind of booster or carseat, they get in and sit in their "assigned" areas. I am not readjusted seats everyday. Besides Nathan is a creature of routine and he would flip out if we rearranged them.

 

My girls have their own carseats and they were happy for a while with sitting in their assigned seats then they wanted to switch sides and the arguing started. Now our rule is whoever gets in first gets the farthest seat (which is behind the driver, so the other doesn't have to squeeze by their sister), they sit in the very back row of our mini van. This seems to work well. As for other things they brush their teeth usually at the same time, they don't really go on the computer so when they do they just share, and take turns at playing video games on the v-smile. Thankfully they just seem to work things out on their own. Our biggest problem used to be where they sat at the dinner table. They both always wanted to sit next to me and when their brother started sitting at the table next to him, so we rotate days on who gets to sit where and they just let me know where they sat the night before.

 

I didn't think about carseats when I answered. They sit in the same ones every time. For some reason, position in the car has never been something they've argued about. Mine are more likely to want to go *second* at most things, so I had to pick a way for someone to go first! :lol:

 

We've always done even/odd days for turntaking as well in just about everything. It's impartial and works except when a month ends in 31 days. Then we used to swtich who got even/odd days the next month or let Sean have a day to decide/make a decision for them or just flipped a coin.

 

we always had days of the week. Like Monday would be A, Tuesday B, Wednesday C, Thursday D, Friday E. Since we had not just the twin thing but also with our other siblings too. It worked out pretty well with 5 kids lol. then saturday and sunday went to my brother and I since we were oldest. so we got two days, but it seemed pretty fair overall.