It’s not your place has been the theme at home his week.  I’ll explain…

We usually get up at around 5.30 in the morning. We all get bathed / showered etc.  Son no 3 sets the breakfast table, we sit and have breakfast, then we brush teeth and get into the car for the morning school run.  Most mornings this all runs smoothly and everyone is in a good mood.

This week has been different though.  Son no 4 has decided to change his position at the table and this has upset Son no 3. So chatter around the table has been met with comments like – “Stop looking at me / Dork / I Don’t want to look at your ugly face etc etc.”

I have done some illustrations below to help you visualise:

This first illustration shows our original seating layout – when we still had Son no 1 and 2 at home.  As you can see – Son no 4 sits on the right hand side.

The following illustration shows our current seating arrangement – it is just the 4 of us nowadays so there is loads of space at the table.

Son no 4 has decided to move from position 2 to position no 6.  No big deal really and hubby and I  have no issues with it.  Son no 3 of course is causing major problems over the move though.  He insists on setting a place for Son no 4 in position 2 every morning.  Son no 4 then comes into the kitchen and they snarl at each other for 5 minutes and then Son no 4 moves his place setting to position 6.

Then the 2 of them spend the rest of the time throwing derogatory comments at each other.  So by the time we get into the car – World War 3 and 4 has happened.


We told Son no 3 one morning that if he didn’t like it – he could go eat in the dining-room storeroom. (I say storeroom as our dining-room is currently home to the treadmill white elephant and loads of boxes and washing baskets etc.)  So he sat in the dining-room on his own.

Whatever hubby and I do or say – we are accused of favouring the other child.  There is just no way of winning this argument.