How to deal with bad DNA

My wife's cousin, Dosie, and her husband Sonny, have four kids. (A quick side note: Dosie is a nick name for Dorothy and Sonny is a nick name for Sigmund). We really like them - all of them in fact - the parents and the kids.

As you can imagine, managing four kids is challenging. This is made even more of a test because one of their sons, Jack, has Down Syndrome. So, as with any challenge in life, they have come up with a variety of ways to deal with managing the kids and managing the stress surrounding life with a big family.

My favorite thing they do is this: if one of their kids is acting up, misbehaving, or otherwise being unpleasant and Dosie or Sonny can identify and attribute the trait directly to the DNA of one of them, that's the parent that has to deal with the issue/behavior.

For example, if Ethan is acting up, hitting Emma let's say, and Dosie can say, "Hey Sonny, you're the one who used to get in fights as a kid, I used to stay inside and read and was a geek," then Sonny is the one that has to deal with it. If Sydney is lagging while getting ready for school and Sonny can say, "Hey Dosie, you're the one who can't get out of the house without an hour of preparation, it takes me 30 seconds to shower, dress and get in the car," then Dosie deals with it (and takes this opportunity to tell Sonny, that the reason it only takes him 30 seconds to get ready is because he's bald and has no taste in clothes).

A good way to divide and delegate some of the harder things to deal with as a parent and just plain funny.