Rules of the Home

After lots of talk (mostly due to recent road trips) Nathan and I have tried to come up with some new ideas for family management.

We thought of doing a "mission statement" so when we are in the heat of toddler-hood, we can remind ourselves what the purpose is.

A mission statement seemed to adult.  We needed it to be something a bit more tangible to the very little people we are targeting.  Yet, something that can be changed as we grow and change as a family (thank you chalk board paint!)

Thus, our rules were born.

1.  Be NICE

2.  Talk To God

3. Be Creative

4. Love Your Home

5. Be Yourself

Dinner time has been used to talk and describe and make examples of the rules and why and what they are.  Both the boys like them as the oldest is (a huge) rule maker and the medium isn't. He told me he won't break these.  "They work for him."

We want our home to be a sanctuary.  Our oldest is bad at running his mouth at inappropriate times about people he is seeing and our medium one, is well, very much an individual who needs to feel secure in a space if he is a dragon, dancer, ninja, jedi, or just plain ol' Mason.  Hopefully #3 will figure out what works for him.  We are hoping these will be his guidelines to what our sanctuary looks like.

Continuing along with this idea of defining things, we defined each of our boys and gave them their own personal rules (so to speak) to what we are seeing in them right now.  We know it will change.

We are hoping our rule maker will start to think of these rules when he chooses to upset a brother or make something out of nothing - good or bad (like the invisible finger wound tonight).  We hope our rule breaker starts to recognize that moment before explosion and how it is always ok to be what or who he wants - especially at home.  We all hope to remember the littlest bandit's need to be part of the gang.

I'm hoping all of these will remind me when I try to make them bend to my rules even though I really know they can't.