Rules at our house.

Over the years raising our kids, we've had to make some rules.  Some of them are very practical and some of them are just a little weird, but these things have come up.  It's like the book "Please Don't Eat The Daisies" when the mom remembered to tell her kids a bunch of things not to do when company came over, but forgot to mention that they should not eat the daisies out of the centerpiece of the dining table.   When they were little, our rules were very simple and to the point.  "No means no" and "Stop means stop" are 2 examples.  The meaning here is if Mom says no, she means it, quit asking her over and over and if your sister says to stop tickling her, you need to stop immediately.  At one point, for a very brief time when my oldest was a toddler, we had a rule that stated "Spitting means spanking" because he had gotten into a very brief (thankfully) habit of spitting into people's faces.  As soon as it became grounds for an immediate (rare) spanking, he quit doing that.  We have used spanking very sparingly but that was one time we did.  We tried a bunch of other things first, but nothing worked. 

As they got older, the rules changed.  One of the best things that we did when they were in the elementary school ages was "Kid of the Day", an idea I got from Family Fun Magazine.  Each kid had 2 days a week and the parents had 1.  On that day, they got to decide where we ate if we ate at a restaurant and they got the first hour first choice of the very complicated screen time schedule.   Now that they are a little older, they work out the screen time disputes on their own with pretty much no intervention from either parent.  We've always encouraged them to work out disputes as fairly as possible without involving mom or dad because mom and dad would say things like "You're fighting over the TV?  Let's just turn it off for the rest of the day."  They really, don't want mom or dad involved in any disputes because mom and dad's solutions usually don't make anyone happy.  As a result of this technique, they rarely fight and often are found negotiating interesting solutions to problems.  Screen time is limited to from 7:00 p.m. to bedtime each night and school work must be done first.  

Since our oldest is 18 and is getting ready to graduate, we're going to be going through some rule re-thinking.  I mean, he's an adult.   The old rules of "no cooking unless an adult is home" and "no going outside unless an adult is home" have changed because now we have another adult in the family.  (It's weird!). 

A lot of our rules have to do with food for some reason.  For a long time, we had a rule about choosing from a different food group if a child wanted to just eat the same thing all day long.  Now we have complicated food rules that I hear about but I don't really participate in because of my unusual dietary requirements and restrictions.  Apparently, if you eat chips, you must eat a sandwich with them.  (Not me, because I don't really eat sandwiches!) You cannot just fill up on a whole bag of chips.  Also, you can only eat 2 sweet things per day.  If we buy a package of  hot dogs, each child and dad each get 2 hot dogs.  (I don't eat them either).  

There are, or there should be rules about eating mom's peanut butter M&Ms when she has PMS too.  This is very important.  I don't care what anyone says, my name on that bag of M&Ms last month was IMPLIED.  :-P

So there you are, a glimpse into how we run our mostly peaceful household.