Making good rules

At my kid's school we have an important decision to make when we get to the main gate. Do we go up the stairs to Liam's class first or through the gate to Michelle's class first?

Of course both my children want the opposite thing which is to go to their sibling's class first. So my choice would always end up with one unhappy child and a futile discussion. I sometimes have my one year old Jason with me so that complicates the herding process as well.

So I instituted a very simple rule. Let's go turn about each day. It seemed entirely fair and obvious - what could possibly go wrong?

Many things as it turned out. One problem was that neither of my kids could seem to remember who went first the day before despite my detailed descriptions. Also Joanne sometimes dropped them off, so I would get a conflicting story as to who went first then. And even I would sometimes misremember, escalating their sense of injustice.

So I finally came up with a new rule. If Jason is with us (which happens twice a week) we go to Michelle's class downstairs first. Otherwise it's upstairs to Liam's class. And it has worked perfectly every time. The rule works, I think, because it depends on something immediately observable by everyone and can be determined instantly without requiring discussion. It doesn't depend on memory or a past history of events which is what leads to the competing interpretations and conflicts.

There is a teacher who holds the gate open in the mornings. Our kids know he doesn't know the rule so they like to quiz him on which way he thinks we will go each morning. So instead of the walk into school being a painful exercise, it has now turned into a fun event for everyone.

Lunchbox game theory

A practical lesson in game theory: the three-person game.

When helping the kids pack yoghurt for their lunch boxes, I found there was only strawberry yoghurt left in the fridge in the tear-off individual containers. Their preferred yoghurts, mango and vanilla, were finished.

So I asked Liam to grab new yoghurt from the garage fridge. He came back with two large containers (there were no tear-off packs left) which happened to be mango and vanilla. Since we could only open one of them, I asked Liam which one he wanted.

"Mango."

Liam then asked Michelle the same question, who replied, "Vanilla."

I said, "Sorry, we can only open one. So which one will we have?"

Same responses.

"Michelle.", I said, "We can only have one, so how about we have mango this week?"

"No!", she says, "I want vanilla!", as she starts to melt down.

"OK, Liam.", I said, "How about we have vanilla this week, since it seems to be important to Michelle?"

"No!", he says, "I want mango and I said it first!", as he also starts to melt down.

"OK.", I said, "Since you can't agree, I'm going to put them away and you can both have strawberry today."

"Noooooooo!"

OK that was traumatic. Unfortunately, in addition to the yoghurt wars, I see that tomorrow we will only have one bread roll left and one of the kids will have to have sliced bread...