Can you believe we’ve already done another 10 activities? Yep! this is activity no. 20! Summer is flying by…. 😦

Welp, we can’t stop time so we may as well make the most of it!

On to today’s stuff…

Does your family struggle when it comes to making choices?

Do the kiddos squabble when it’s time to make a choice because they want their choice to be the ONE?

Let me tell you, even in a house of tweens and teens, their are still squabbles, hurt feelings, and what I’ve termed stomp offs, (which are the equivalent of a two year old temper tantrum in a more dramatic and ”grown-up” way *eye role*), when one or the other doesn’t get what they want.

Well, if you have slightly older kids or tweens and teens, I believe my family’s method can help!

First, let me tell you what the activity for today is, then we’ll get to the good stuff.

Activity No. 20 – Watch a Movie No One Has Seen Before

I have no idea whose idea this was or which of our lists it came off of, but when I put this one on the choice board, my heart cringed just a little.

Our family struggles when it comes to picking a movie we’ve seen a hundred times; I can’t imagine the four of us trying to pick a movie we’ve never seen.

I imagined it going something like this: everyone gathers in the family room, one of us (usually Mr. Right) grabs the remote and then the guide watching commences!

Yep, we spend more time scrolling through the guide than actually picking a movie because someone will say,

“hey, how bout _____”

To which everyone else’s reply is

“Nah!” or “Eh, I’m not interested in that” or “We always watch what you wanna watch!”

Can I just say, ugh? Thank you! UGH!!!!!

The time came for us to decide on a movie. Let me say here that I took the liberty of saving us all from watching the guide (always willing to take one for the team 😉 )

I watched the guide and picked five movies I knew none of us had seen.

Over dinner (yep many of our family ‘meetings’ happen over dinner. Isn’t that where all family meetings happen?), I asked how we were going to decide and the oldest pipes up with this one,

“Like a reality show!”

“What?”

“You know, lets do it like a survivor kinda thing, where we video us talking about why we don’t like this one, and why we think that one should be picked, and then show the one we actually pick!”

There was laughing and lots of hey that’s a great idea around the table

And that’s how this activity became How to Make a Choice, Without Squabbles, in Eight Simple Steps

Here’s what we did:

1. Designate someone to Pick four or five choices: for us, that was me! I chose 5 movies I knew none of us had seen. You could do this for whatever is trying to be decided, not just for picking movies (of course you already figured that out huh?)
2. Chose a “Voting Booth”: We chose our half bath downstairs. It was quick, quiet, and the most convenient for us.
3. Create voting strips and have a place to put the votes: we cut strips of paper, put a pencil with them, laid them on the edge of the sink and then had a hat for everyone to put their vote into.
4. Put choices on a sheet of paper and hang it up in the ‘voting booth‘: I listed the choices on the page and taped it to the medicine cabinet. This is so everyone knows what the choices are. The last thing we need is for someone to vote on a choice that wasn’t even a choice to begin with!
5. Set up a video device: I set my phone on it’s side in the medicine cabinet’s door track, turned the video camera on and hit pause.
6. Each person takes a turn voting: we then all took our turn going into the ‘voting booth’, hitting the record button, doing our little thang with the why we think this should be, why we think that shouldn’t be….you know like the reality show folks do. Write your vote on a strip, show it to the video, drop it in the hat. Easy peasy lemon squeezy
7. Tally the Votes: after everyone has voted, tally the votes! The one with the most votes is the choice.
8. In case of a tie: Before we tallied the votes, we decided if there were a tie those two choices would go back in the hat and we would draw one.

Our choice ended up being a really good choice (Paddington). Mr Right wasn’t thrilled with the choice but he suffered through it and actually laughed a couple of times (I think he secretly like it, but didn’t want anyone to know, shh 😉 )

There you have it, how to stop the squabbling in 8 easy steps!!

Till Next Time,

♥ Robyn (psst.. “that little something” – tweens and teens want to know they’re important and that the choices they make are valued and respected,even if that choice doesn’t end up being THE choice) You thought I forgot didn’t you? NEVER!

Tweet: Teens want to know they’re important, that the choices they make are valued, respected; even if that choice doesn’t end up being THE choice

How does you family make choices? How do you stop the squabbles? Whats the latest movie you’ve watched? I’d love to hear all about it all!!

Here are our voting videos…hilariously funny!