Silence is Golden

Oh, the sound of silence in the minivan.  It's a bea - u - ti - ful thing.  When it happens.

It seems like it has been the year of bickering in the car, so I've been putting one of my mom's tricks into practice:  The Silence Contest.  Whining?  Crying?  Hitting?  Biting?  Bickering?  It's time for a silence contest. 

I don't know why this worked with my sister and me when we were kids or why it works with my kids, but it does.  My mom used to promise a piece of gum to the person who could stay silent the longest in the car.  I don't often have gum in my purse {maybe I should, but that's another story}, so it's just the simple allure of being the winner that has to suffice.  And by some miracle, it usually does.

Today on the way home from church, there was a lot of whining and bickering, and one of the kids actually proposed a silence contest.  Of course I went right along with that idea.  All three managed to make it all the way home (almost 15 minutes) in silence with one exception.  Anna had to cough and then had to whisper-ask me if coughing counted.  Of course it doesn't, but asking about coughing does, so we had to start over.  When we pulled into the garage, I told them they all did a great job and were all winners, but Christian reminded me that Anna only got "silver" because of her interruption, and he and Ehren got "gold."