Parenting is fun, it gives you warm fuzzies, it’s sentimental and beautiful. But let’s be honest, a lot of the time, it’s downright ridiculous too.
When you become a parenting you do things, say things, and clap about things you never would have imagined. And then there are the rules you have to make.
Teaching kids is a lot more than just “indoor voice and outdoor voice” or other cute sayings.
They come up with things, crazy things that you never would have thought you’d need to make a rule about, and then suddenly you’re making these new rules and wondering how you never thought to mention them before.
Here are just a FEW of the crazy rules I’ve had to make since becoming a mom.
“We don’t feed the baby trash.”
Obvious, right? Why did I not think to cover this in the midst of everything we did to prepare our toddler for the birth of his baby sister?
“We don’t stand on the windowsill and wave at the neighbors naked.”
TRUE STORY you guys. True story. We lived on the third story, so thankfully there was a tree in front of the kid, but I can tell you for sure that there’s nothing quite like going in to get your sweet 18 month old up from his nap, only to discover that he’s stripped down to his birthday suit and is standing up on the window sill waving at people with all his glory out. Yay, sons.
“We don’t spoon applesauce into mommy’s pants (especially not WHILE SHE IS WEARING THEM).
Same kid. Same darling kid that finds the strangest, craziest, things to do in his life.
“Get down means get off the table, don’t just sit on it”
When Sis was born, I’d find my son in all sorts of interesting positions while I was nursing her. One day, I looked up to where he had been coloring AT the table, to see him standing ON the dinging room table trying to grab the light fixture. When I told him to “get down”, he immediately complied by sitting down in the middle of the table and calmly continuing to color. Way to obey the letter of the law kid.
“Over the line also means on the line”
Now that my son is older (5) I’ve learned that i have to make VERY SPECIFIC rules for the kid, or he will find and exploit any loopholes I’ve left him. A rule like, “Don’t go past that line on the driveway” will be followed with questions like “but can I be on the line?”
“if I say don’t ask again, you also can’t ask yourself”
There’s something about kids…they think if they keep asking the same darn question 500 times in a row they’ll get the answer they want at some point. My son is the king of this. He’ll ask a question and then keep asking variations of the same question until he gets a VERY EXACT answer. If I don’t know, or I haven’t made a decision about something yet, he’s relentless. Normally, I’d just use the ol’ “don’t ask me that again” rule, but when I whipped this out of my mommy phrase toolbox the other day, not even 45 seconds had passed when I heard him repeating the same question again. He was quick to assure me though, he wasn’t asking me…he was asking himself. Smartie.
So many rules you guys. So many things I never would have thought about, but thanks to my kids, are now ordinary, every day rules in our home.
What are some crazy things you’ve found yourself saying? Let me know in the comments!
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