Stopping the Argument by Adding Choices

For various reasons, we ended up alone with the big grandkids on Simchat Torah.  After a lot of dancing in our very local shul, literally in our backyard, the kids and my husband had had enough.  Numbers 1 and 3 spent time at the quicker dovening with my husband, and I took the second one home with me.  We got everything ready for the festive meal. I cut the salad, and she set the table.


My daughter seems to have raised her kids with the rule I made up:

Whoever sets the table decides where everyone sits.

When my husband came home with the other two, the eldest had complaints.  She preferred a different wine cup and wasn't very pleased with her location.  The two girls began fighting it out, verbally, of course.  I decided to change the rules.  I went into the cabinet which contains all the wine and shot glasses and took out a few others, very different from the one they were fighting over.


Success!  Each one fell in love with a different cup from those included in my new choices.

"From now on, this is the only wine cup I want!" They said in unison.

That's all it took.  And neither of their choices is actually a wine cup.  One is a very kitchy small glass decorated with gold swirls and the other is a very  modern shot glass, "v" shaped on a blue ball.


Yes, classic "out of the box" thinking saved the day, B"H, thank G-d!