KMM418

We rotate with another family weekly, affectionately called Family Dinner Sundays. Our older kids both get rowdy, and there is usually crying and sometimes blood (standard kid injuries like a skinned knee, not fistfights). We’ve taken a collective approach, and any adult is allowed to step in to parent any child. We draw the line at giving kids time-outs (their family uses them, our family doesn’t). But any parent is empowered to take a toy and put it up if the kids don’t play with it appropriately after 1 reminder, or if they’re fighting over something, we set a five-minute timer until the next kid gets a turn. We ask our kid if there’s anything he doesn’t want to share before they come over and we put things away while guests are over. Sometimes, directed activities like coloring, crafts, bubbles or playing outside to get them away from all the toys helps us when the kids are wild. The older kids like it when an adult plays with them, so we also rotate that throughout the course of our get togethers so the adults get some down time to hang out and the kids have an adult supervising them to keep things a little more calm.