"Go First" Day

Those of you who are friends on Facebook might remember my post from a few weeks ago about this. Vincent has been going through a "ME FIRST!" phase, which I find incredibly unattractive. We had a bit of a squabble about it one particular day earlier this month. After several do-overs, he was still not getting the point or changing his tune, so I took away his "go first" privileges for a week. All I could do all week was hope and pray for some creative solution, because I knew the issue wasn't just going to go away. At the end of the week we talked about it and he seemed to get the point ... for about 10 minutes.

I can't keep track of who gets to sit in which chair or who went first brushing teeth last time we remembered to do it, or who got in the van first last time we left the house, so I decided it would be much easier on me to have assigned days: I implemented "Go First" Day. When I came up with the idea on Tuesday, the only thing left to fight over that day was who would brush teeth first, and of course, Vince was fighting for the lead. I gave him the option to brush his teeth first or have a whole day of firsts the next day. Let's just say teaching him delayed gratification is going to be a challenge...he chose to brush his teeth first.

So Day 1 was Anthony's "Go First" Day. All day long, when it was time to take medicine or get a drink from the fridge or have a snack opened, I would ask the boys, "Hmm, whose 'Go First' Day is it?" By the end of the day they knew the drill and this morning when it became Vincent's "Go First" Day he was thrilled, and he's been really nice about it, too. He'll say, "it's okay, Antunie, you'll get to go next," or "don't woowy, Antunie, tomowow is your 'Go First' Day!" So far, so good! Now if I could just conquer the meaningless, "YES!" "NO!" fights between the boys, I would be on a roll!