These Rules Are Hard

Brian said that tonight. For us, as parents. For the kids, as kids.

I am so done this week. Done, I tell you. I have repeated myself more times than I promised myself I would. I have punished and rewarded to my limit.

When we moved into this "new" house in August, Brian and I talked about having more rooms that did not have toys, more rules about "where things go." So this week when I happened upon Babydoll Napping Scenes in every room of the house,



I just had to let it go. I'm done. This is not one of the rules I need right now.



I read this great post about determining our distance with our children by Barbara and I was moved. I really think about that daily - in the car, in the playroom, at the table eating - I have no idea how much to intervene in the arguments and how much to interrupt the hugging. Mostly I want to be a fly on the wall and feel proud of my work, but that may be just from lack of Alone Time too, so how do I determine the distance?

We had some rules for awhile about washing hands in the sink - you know, trying to get the routine of wetting, using soap, rinsing and drying without wasting too much water. But Henry has is down pat, and Svea, well, she's still learning. And I'm just thinking that these things take some time.




We had some rules about standing on furniture,



but now I am choosing to enforce the rules about NOT riding the boogy board DOWN the furniture or walking on the back ledge of the couch instead of sitting down for the love of GAWD.

So now we paint WHILE standing on furniture WITH paint that does not come out of clothes.





I'm just going to type it out loud: These rules are hard.