Making the best decisions occasionally required knowing the preferences of my children. Besides a survey—see Take a Survey Here—an uneven vote was another way I infrequently collected information. A side benefit was making voting a familiar part of my sons’ lives.
I might say, “We are taking a vote to help us make a decision. Each of you gets one vote. Three votes total. Daddy and I get two votes each. Four votes total. Which would do you prefer? Camping at Point Lookout or camping at Catoctin Mountain?”
This only works if you are undecided. If parents are unified and have strong preferences, an uneven vote would be cruel. Children’s votes are automatically overruled.
You can also assign one parent more votes than the other or one child more votes than siblings depending on the type of decision and who has the most at stake.
At least two of our children received their preference because either my husband or I voted with the majority.
Have you experimented with creative voting?
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