MyThreeDaughters

It was about 11:15 Sunday morning, when Fontaine became bored with the family’s lack of leadership.
“Alright everyone, we’re having a family meeting!” the six-year-old announced.
Wife and I were slow to report to the conference/family room, so once I plopped on the couch, Fontaine declared:
“O.K., we’re starting the meeting.”
A chart had already been drawn up, offering various options as to what the family should do next. The choices were: Church; Walk; Playground; Just Play Outside; Drebble a ball; and Eat Lunch Now.
The Future Middle Manager instructed that she would be voting first, but I interrupted.
Can each person only vote once, or can we vote for more than one option as second and third choices?
There’s always some loser at work who makes a meeting longer by asking questions like this, so I thought I’d be that guy.
Middle Management seemed pleased to hear this question, and allowed that each could vote three times.
Middle Management then cast its vote.
I went second.
“Just Play Outside,” I called out. Middle Management nodded in seeming approval.
Wife arrived and voted for Dribble a Ball.
“Dribble a ball!?” Middle Manager chortled, as she made the tally. “I thought no one was going to vote for that.”
Dribble the Ball, it seems, is like throwing a vote to Ralph Nader.
Next up, four-year-old.
“Elizabeth, it’s your turn.”
“I’m not Elizabeth, I’m Sarah.”
(Forgot, we were playing the pretend-I’m-somebody-else game during the family meeting.)
Finally, we all finished voting. I thought.
“O.K., who needs to vote again?” Middle Manager called out.
So we all voted again.
I looked at the tally sheet.
Church sure got a lot of votes, I said.
“That’s from Mr. Moose,” Fontaine explained, glancing at the stuffed moose sitting near her. “He voted three times.”
Oh man, the unpredictable Moose vote swayed it. Shades of the old Bull Moose party. Church in a landslide.
Wife then noted that it was already 11:30, and church was out of the question.
Meeting adjourned/exploded into chaos, and we all went and stood in the kitchen.
I popped a bagel in the toaster. Two other voices said they were hungry.
And in the end, an option that garnered no votes won: Eat Lunch Now.
No sweat. Fontaine got the chart, put 28 tallies after Eat Lunch Now and declared it the winner.
Never too late to have a clean outcome.