(no subject)
Feb. 18th, 2014 11:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysobelHypothetical situation: take a family of four, two parents and two kids, that does a family breakfast every Sunday morning. Three of the four prefer option A as the food choice. The fourth prefers option B; will eat A (under some protest), and allergies are not an issue, but there is a definite preference. The other three will eat B but prefer A.
This is a weekly occurrence, and the family needs to work out when to have which foods.
For arbitrary reasons, it is not possible to a) make both A and B for the same meal, b) find an option C that all people feel equally pleased with, or c) let dissatisfied members make their own breakfasts. It is always either A or B, and all participants must partake.
So, perhaps obviously, this is not entirely hypothetical. When I was growing up, we had a tradition for Sunday mornings. I don't know how it started, though as I am the younger child I suspect it was established well before I came along; I don't know why an option C never entered the picture. I just remember the disagreement, because I was the odd one out.
Sunday mornings were almost always oatmeal, which I tolerated but only because I didn't really have other options. Very occasionally, we had cream of wheat, which is how I discovered that I liked it a hell of a lot better. It was reasonably equivalent effort for the person making it.
I can tell you that my preference differential was high. It wasn't that I liked oatmeal but liked cream of wheat more; I didn't really like oatmeal at all. And being forced to eat it didn't help matters.
(I have no idea why I couldn't eat an option C, except that the point was sharing a single meal and also not causing extra work for my parents.)
I can't, of course, tell you about the other three preference levels. I have the impression that they liked my option better than I liked theirs -- that the dislike wasn't as strong -- but I was young and not really aware of nuances and also wasn't in their heads at all.
My parents adopted a policy of rotating who got to choose, which led to the AAAB option of the poll. I consistently campaigned for the AB option, because that meant everyone got their favorite every other week,cut my sister maintained that doing that weighted it unfairly in my favor.
I know I can't change anything about the situation, or about the fact that I'm clearly still holding it in the back of my head, or about the fact that i still tend not to like oatmeal even when I try (there are occasions when it's fine, and more occasions where I want to like it) but I'm just ... curious what other people think.
This is a weekly occurrence, and the family needs to work out when to have which foods.
For arbitrary reasons, it is not possible to a) make both A and B for the same meal, b) find an option C that all people feel equally pleased with, or c) let dissatisfied members make their own breakfasts. It is always either A or B, and all participants must partake.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 22
What is the best option?
View Answers
A every week (straight vote-counting)
0 (0.0%)
AAAB repeated (rotation of member preferences)
9 (40.9%)
AB repeated (everyone gets one off week and one on week)
4 (18.2%)
B every week (executive decision, with coup as necessary)
2 (9.1%)
Random lots, weighted 3-to-1
3 (13.6%)
Random lots, weighted 1-to-1, e.g. coin toss
1 (4.5%)
Other
3 (13.6%)
So, perhaps obviously, this is not entirely hypothetical. When I was growing up, we had a tradition for Sunday mornings. I don't know how it started, though as I am the younger child I suspect it was established well before I came along; I don't know why an option C never entered the picture. I just remember the disagreement, because I was the odd one out.
Sunday mornings were almost always oatmeal, which I tolerated but only because I didn't really have other options. Very occasionally, we had cream of wheat, which is how I discovered that I liked it a hell of a lot better. It was reasonably equivalent effort for the person making it.
I can tell you that my preference differential was high. It wasn't that I liked oatmeal but liked cream of wheat more; I didn't really like oatmeal at all. And being forced to eat it didn't help matters.
(I have no idea why I couldn't eat an option C, except that the point was sharing a single meal and also not causing extra work for my parents.)
I can't, of course, tell you about the other three preference levels. I have the impression that they liked my option better than I liked theirs -- that the dislike wasn't as strong -- but I was young and not really aware of nuances and also wasn't in their heads at all.
My parents adopted a policy of rotating who got to choose, which led to the AAAB option of the poll. I consistently campaigned for the AB option, because that meant everyone got their favorite every other week,cut my sister maintained that doing that weighted it unfairly in my favor.
I know I can't change anything about the situation, or about the fact that I'm clearly still holding it in the back of my head, or about the fact that i still tend not to like oatmeal even when I try (there are occasions when it's fine, and more occasions where I want to like it) but I'm just ... curious what other people think.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-19 10:12 am (UTC)if it was something like "we go out to a given restaurant and all have to be at the same one", then i'd say let each of the 4 in turn pick, but which *cereal* each person's allowed to eat? i'm thinking there were some hinky control issues going on.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-19 06:35 pm (UTC)for breakfast cereal though, i wouldn't weigh the parents preferences at all, if the parents could tolerate both options and no allergies. with children i'd alternate between the children's preferences not the adult preferences.