Mommy Help : The Weekly "Captain"

Life with 5 children is .... well, lively! My kids squabbled about typical things like who gets to sit in which seat of the van, who gets to bring in the mail, who gets to set the table ( okay, not so much that one ). I don't remember if I read it in a magazine or heard it from a friend, but a brilliant solution to this was assigning a weekly "Captain". Starting with the oldest child and working our way down, each Monday began a new week for the "Captain", and that child got certain privileges ( choosing their seat in the van - usually the front, bringing in the mail, picking the movie to watch ) and certain responsibilities ( setting the dinner table, feeding the dog ). Additional ranks, with their own perks and assignments, can be assigned to siblings, moving down the birth order. Once established, my kids never questioned the rights of the "captain", since they knew that their turn was coming.