My Mom's Top 5 Rules for Kids

Ivy over at Home Ec 101 has a fabulous post up entitled Mom's Rules and How I Broke Them (And Why She Was Right). Here's a little snippet:



I’m sure it doesn’t surprise anyone to learn that when I was a kid, I’d break the rules as much as possible. Finally, to keep peace in the house, I stopped breaking so many rules, but I vowed that when I had my own house, I’d not have any of those same rules. Now that I’m an adult, I’ve spent some time breaking those rules and I’ve learned that most (not all!) of them had a really good reason for it. Let’s take a look.

“Don’t stand and stare into the refrigerator”


This might have been the one thing my mom and I fought the most about. If I spent more than 30 seconds staring into the fridge, mom would be on me like white on rice, yelling at me not to stand around staring into the refrigerator. Naturally, the first thing I did when I got a house of my own, is open my refrigerator and stand there staring into it for as long as I felt like it.


The truth is, it really does let the cold out, and you shouldn't stand around staring into the fridge. But how are you going to decide what to eat without opening the refrigerator?



Click here to read the full post.


All moms have rules, don't they? My mom had about a gazillion and one rules, but let me preface that statement: My mom is one of the easiest going, laid back moms out there; she was never one of those cranky-always yelling-perfectionist type moms. (Oh thank you, Lord) but she had to have rules, otherwise the whole house would've been chaos. Usually when you think of "rules" you think of a mean taskmaster that is all about don't do this, you must do that, etc. I don't ever remember Mom being like that, (or Daddy) for that matter.



Anyway, I thought it would be fun to list a few of mom's rules below. (Be sure to visit Home Ec 101 and check out my comment about Mom's Corn on the Cob rule that I have violated since I first moved out. )

#1. The children do not run the home or the parents.

This was never spelled out to us kids in these exact words, but trust me it was a rule. It was also the rule that Mom stuck to the most. We were never allowed to dictate where the family would go or when we would go, we also did not dictate mealtimes, menus or family activities. That was our parents realm of authority. (We of course, did get to do lots of fun things, it's just that we didn't get to have a lot of say about the particulars). Also, visits with family and friends did not revolve around keeping us kids entertained. Sounds pretty harsh by today's standards doesn't it. I wonder if so many parents are at wit's end because are catering to every whim of their children.

#2. If you are bored, you get a job.

Each summer, it wasn't long before the Mommmmmm I'm boooooored! whine started. My mom mush have been so sick of hearing this -- I even used to get tired of hearing myself say it. One year, she quietly institute the policy of giving us a job to do if we whined about being bored. It took us a few times to catch on, but after that we started finding creative ways to keep ourselves busy and mom got to enjoy a day blessedly free from the drone of several children whining "I'm booored!"


#3. Obey the 1st time.

This one also sounds pretty harsh by today's standards. We were expected to obey our parents the very first time they asked us to do something. This meant coming the first time we were called, if we started to whine and pitch a fit in public we had to stop the first time they told us to. We also had to get started on whatever chore they asked us to do without them begging us for 10 minutes. I get the feeling there were probably lots of exemptions to this rule when we were quite young, because we were still learning. But once we got a little older, this was just understood -- our parents never said anything like "you must obey me the very first time" -- it was just understood and it wasn't a big issue for us.


One other thing about this "rule" that kind of relates to another unspoken rule: we were expected to have a good attitude about life, we were not be mean, sour, bratty or inconsiderate to other children, neighbors, our parents, and visitors to our home. We were also expected to have a good attitude about chores and school work. Again, like the obey rule, this was never jammed into our heads by our parents constantly harping on it. We learned this by the example our parents set day in and day out. The old adage, more is caught than taught is so true. Decades later my mom is still a cheerful, pleasant lady with a good attitude about life -- she has the prettiest smile and she uses it often. It's a real honor when old family friends tell me I'm just like my mom.

#4 Never Hurt An Animal.

We raised hogs primarily, but we also raised chickens, goats, sheep, ducks, geese, dogs, puppies -- you name it -- we had it at one time or another. I loved them all. From the time we could stand, us kids were allowed to "help" take care of all the animals. We especially liked to play with the baby animals because they were so cute and little. We were allowed plenty of play time, but we were were held to very strict rules of not hurting the babies or disturbing the adults to the point that they hurt us. This one was really tough for me, because I think I was the most taken with animals and would've lived out in the barn if allowed to. It was incredibly hard to not handle the babies too much -- they were so cute!

#5 Sunday afternoon is Nap Time

Sunday was a day of rest in our home. After lunch everyone was expected to lie down and take a nap or quietly rest for about an hour or so. With a houseful of busy kids my mom and dad probably looked forward to this time all week. It was the only time I ever saw my Mom lay down during waking hours, save the times she was really sick. This was a really difficult rule for me to keep. I had so much energy, I remember nap time as pure torture. I used to sneak outside under the pretense of having to go to the bathroom (remember, we had an outhouse).

Now that I'm an adult, Sunday nap time is something I relish.