Family Rules!
What is your first thought when you think of family rules? "ugh, I just want to go play," "Why do I have to clean the kitchen again?," "Can I do them later?," "So and so didn't have to do that when I was their age."
There is a flood of memories that come to my mind when I think of family rules. I remember my mom spending many hours working on making job charts. Unfortunately, they many times had no effect on us. She even made them creative, where she took two paper plates and made a spinning chart, so we could switch it up every week. My moms intentions were good, but us kids had other intentions, and that was, we weren't going to do them, but go play out in the sandbox. Though at that time they had no effect on us, the effort my mom put in wasn't a waste, we knew what we needed to do. Our wants just seemed to overpower the needs of the house.
We had other rules in our house such as, curfew is at 11, no friends allowed in mom and dad's room, clean up your mess at home and when you leave someone else's house, work hard, etc... My parents created rules, not as a hinderance, but to help us learn life lessons, and some as a protection.
One example of a protection is the rule to put your phone on the hutch when we go to bed. My parents gave us this rule because there was no need to have our phone in our room after we went to bed. They also didn't want us up talking with people all night, or view things that were inappropriate, or wouldn't help us in our progression. I personally loved this rule because I got better sleep and I wasn't worried about my phone.
Are there some rules in your family that aren't spoken? Such as you don't jump on the furniture. This rule is one that is obvious and doesn't need to be written down. Say please and thank you, open the door on dates, and for people entering or leaving a building. All of us have those rules that aren't spoken, but at some point in our lives we learned that that was a "no no" or yes, that is common sense.
One example I want to share of an unspoken rule took place at the grocery store. My mom needed to go to the store, so of course my brother and I wanted to go so that we could get some treats! My brother and I were glued at the hip and did everything together. We also liked to have a little fun! While my mom was off getting the things we needed, my brother and I went looking for our treats. Mom was taking a long time, so Tyler (my brother) and I had the great idea to play hide and seek in the store. I was running around trying to hide while Tyler was looking for me. While he was trying to find me, it turned into even more than just hide and seek, but you were trying to scare the person. Tyler thinking I was on the next isle thought he would be funny and jump out and scare me. Tyler was ready to make his move, so he jumped out in front of the isle and screamed! Well little did he know that I wasn't on that isle! He scared the crap out of some old lady! So Tyler, being the person he is, slowly shuffled to the next isle and started running! He found me and told me of his achievement. I'm not sure what happened to that old woman, she probably has some bad memories of the store now, but at least she didn't fall down. When we told our mom, she wasn't too happy! We got what we call the "evil eye." Mom had this weird eye thing that was kind of creepy. She would give us that look and we instantly knew that what we thought was funny wasn't so funny. I think the best part of this story is we were juniors in high school!
I am grateful for the rules my parents created for our family, they have helped to keep our family glued together. Even when we do silly things. I know that my parents have the best of intentions for us.
What is your first thought when you think of family rules? "ugh, I just want to go play," "Why do I have to clean the kitchen again?," "Can I do them later?," "So and so didn't have to do that when I was their age."
There is a flood of memories that come to my mind when I think of family rules. I remember my mom spending many hours working on making job charts. Unfortunately, they many times had no effect on us. She even made them creative, where she took two paper plates and made a spinning chart, so we could switch it up every week. My moms intentions were good, but us kids had other intentions, and that was, we weren't going to do them, but go play out in the sandbox. Though at that time they had no effect on us, the effort my mom put in wasn't a waste, we knew what we needed to do. Our wants just seemed to overpower the needs of the house.
We had other rules in our house such as, curfew is at 11, no friends allowed in mom and dad's room, clean up your mess at home and when you leave someone else's house, work hard, etc... My parents created rules, not as a hinderance, but to help us learn life lessons, and some as a protection.
One example of a protection is the rule to put your phone on the hutch when we go to bed. My parents gave us this rule because there was no need to have our phone in our room after we went to bed. They also didn't want us up talking with people all night, or view things that were inappropriate, or wouldn't help us in our progression. I personally loved this rule because I got better sleep and I wasn't worried about my phone.
Are there some rules in your family that aren't spoken? Such as you don't jump on the furniture. This rule is one that is obvious and doesn't need to be written down. Say please and thank you, open the door on dates, and for people entering or leaving a building. All of us have those rules that aren't spoken, but at some point in our lives we learned that that was a "no no" or yes, that is common sense.
One example I want to share of an unspoken rule took place at the grocery store. My mom needed to go to the store, so of course my brother and I wanted to go so that we could get some treats! My brother and I were glued at the hip and did everything together. We also liked to have a little fun! While my mom was off getting the things we needed, my brother and I went looking for our treats. Mom was taking a long time, so Tyler (my brother) and I had the great idea to play hide and seek in the store. I was running around trying to hide while Tyler was looking for me. While he was trying to find me, it turned into even more than just hide and seek, but you were trying to scare the person. Tyler thinking I was on the next isle thought he would be funny and jump out and scare me. Tyler was ready to make his move, so he jumped out in front of the isle and screamed! Well little did he know that I wasn't on that isle! He scared the crap out of some old lady! So Tyler, being the person he is, slowly shuffled to the next isle and started running! He found me and told me of his achievement. I'm not sure what happened to that old woman, she probably has some bad memories of the store now, but at least she didn't fall down. When we told our mom, she wasn't too happy! We got what we call the "evil eye." Mom had this weird eye thing that was kind of creepy. She would give us that look and we instantly knew that what we thought was funny wasn't so funny. I think the best part of this story is we were juniors in high school!
I am grateful for the rules my parents created for our family, they have helped to keep our family glued together. Even when we do silly things. I know that my parents have the best of intentions for us.
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