The Whining Kids Game, or how to survive your children

The Whining Kids Game

Components

A way to list people in order in the kitchen: a whiteboard, a bulletin board with figures or papers representing each child, etc.

A way to track bonuses: a whiteboard, gold stars, whatever.

Play

Each child gets three stars at the beginning of the week.

When one child wants something, and the parent is able to respond, carry on.

When one child wants something at the same time that another child is being attended to, arrange both the children's names on the list. The second child is attended to after the first one is removed from the list by the parent. If two children come to the parent at the same time, the parent decides on the order.

A child can opt to pay a star to move up in the order at any time. If a child no longer has any stars, he or she cannot use this option.

At the end of the week, a child gets one "X" for each star he or she possesses, where X is a dollar, a cookie, or whatever.

You can accumulate stars from week to week. You can trade 10 stars for a "Y": a doll, or bowling. Or 50 stars for a "Z": an Ipod, or whatever. And so on. The parent can make prizes that can be bought by the children pooling stars together.

Note

Proposed benefits of the game:
1) less arguments over not getting attention; once a name goes onto the list, the child knows that they've been heard and have to wait.
2) the realization that will dawn within the child as to how much attention they actually demand.