Calling dibs is a childhood tradition, but is it transferable to living things? (Provided photo — Diane Chase)

I’ve often thought of the absurdity of “calling dibs,” as if saying the phrase exerts a claim of ownership over an object. I’ve used the term, and my children have certainly attached dibs to many passenger seat rides. In our house, the phrase is interchangeable with “shotgun,” and calling for the coveted passenger seat spot before anyone else is guaranteed the privilege.

I never knew that dibs first came into play with a roll of the dice. “The English Dialect Dictionary Vol. 1,” by Joseph Wright, published in 1808, defines dibs as short for dibstones. Children first used sheep knucklebones as dice or jacks, substituting pebbles known as dibstones or checkstones when bones weren’t available. There is also an 1800s reference to dibs as cash.

Chicago takes its dibs seriously. Since street parking is scarce and its winter harsh, if a person shovels out a parking space and reserves it with household furniture, they leave their dibs. Though illegal, it widely occurs, leaving the city to warn people to remove their dibs. Police come to settle disputes or deal with vandalism to vehicles. (I called my cousin to ask about her dibs experiences, but she has no comment.)

The dibs usage most disturbing is to call ownership over a person. Whatever happened to playing the role of unrequited love or best friend? Are children confusing movie scripts with reality? Calling first right reduces the other person to an object. Some children take things too far and hold onto their dibs even when people don’t reciprocate the same feelings, isolating other relationships. It creates barriers and doesn’t allow children to grow emotionally. Besides, it’s weird to call dibs on a living thing.

Calling dibs didn’t always work in our family, whether it was called upon to save a spot or the last piece of cake. Sometimes it solved issues. Other times the practice caused more problems than it was worth. My parents didn’t honor dibs, which wasn’t fair because I called it first. Dibs.