Family Rules

Last week the kids and I were watching one of our top 5 favorite shows...Super nanny! I use her time-out method, and her bed-time routine. It works! I like to watch it with the kids so they can see what "naughty kids" look like. LB said, "Mommy sometimes we're bad too, is Super nanny Jo going to come to my house?" I wish! Then I thought about it, umm Jo probably wouldn't like me telling my kids "I'm going to kick you in your teeth if you tell me no again!!" ha ha

On one of the commercials Rooster said, "Mommy, I'm thinking that our family doesn't have rules. Does that mean we can do whatever we want to?" I started thinking about it, and she is right. We haven't set clear rules, how can I expect them to live up to my standards if they don't even know what they are. SO tonight we gathered around our white board and discussed some family rules:

No biting, pinching, smacking, hitting, pushing, shoving, kicking.
(yes, I have to use all the verbs, because to them smacking and hitting are different!)
No yelling
No interrupting
No wining
No back talking
No jumping on the beds or the couches
No calling names
No getting into the fridge without asking
No slamming doors
No swearing (that one is mostly for me...I know you're surprised!)

SO funny, when we came to the "No Swearing" rule Rooster says, "except for me and Mommy when we have our special time." Hunk says "Oh really?" She looks at me like uh oh what did I just say. Turns to Hunk and says, "Yes! but that's our secret, so you just forget I said it and I'm zipping my lips!" She zipped em and threw away the key! At bedtime the kids let me know too that I was breaking the family rules, when LB said "you're bweaking the rules Mommy, you'we ewupting me! That's your warning." Wait a minute I thought to myself, I thought the rules were for everyone else!