Weird question about my kids fighting

My kids fight a lot, but when my husband is gone (military) its about 7000x worse. I dont really want to get into all of it, because its very frustrating, but weirdly there is one thing i do not understand which provokes 99% of the fights. And its chairs/seats.I do not get it. They are 8 and 10. Far too old to fight over who sits in which chair. Everytime they come to the table they fight and scream over who sits in which chair. (The chairs are identical) everytime we go out to the car, they RUN to the same side of the car, and scream and shove each other saying "thats MY side!" (Again, identical seating) When i tell them to both go on a different side, they will go in and then slide to the other side just to block the other one from sitting. Yes, they get punished for this EVERYTIME with appropriate consequences but it has always been an issue. I dont understand it at all.Im at a point where i realize this particular fight may not ever end no matter what i do. Would it be smart at this point to just label the chairs and the seats in the car, so they have a specific assigned seat, or is that just insanity? How do I stop it ? I can assure you im not just ignoring the behavior. I do think its a response to my husband being gone, as they don't do that when hes here, but i dont think thats an excuse at all. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2ZU6u73