No rules!

Today was a different day and yet not quite as different as I expected. The kids have been getting on my nerves and Grandma Great even sent me a comic about kids knowing which buttons to push. She sure had us pinned even from 600 miles away. Because of my growing impatience with the kids disrespect for me I finally gave in this morning in a moment of weakness and asked Hunter if he would prefer to have no rules. He thought about it for 20 seconds and replied,"No rules... and I am going to be good anyway." That wasn't what I expected but thought hey we will see where this leads us. He then proceeded to take his cereal bowl over with out being asked and went downstairs to get dressed with a big grin on his face. Sienna was another story. She told me all day that she wanted "rolls" on her plate with a dismayed look on her face.

Well we made it through the day without a single rule. I told them they could do whatever they felt like so Hunter watched cartoons all day except to go to "the dentist"(he found out he had 2 cavities which bummed me out more than him) and when I called him up to eat he called back,"I thought there were no rules" which soon became the mantra of the day. I replied, "there aren't so if you want to eat there is lunch for you." He did eat lunch but not his dinner. When Sienna took his Magic Treehouse book he called me for help. Can you guess what I said. He had to figure it out on his own. When Sienna wanted help because she had turned off the TV saying,"I am Mama and that's enough TV for today", and in return was being sat on by big brother, I turned a deaf ear. That one was hard however, to not jump in and rescue her but she can fight back with the best of them. The day continued like that, at times it was great to not have rules and at other times they were begging for them. I was tempted to stay in bed all day using the excuse that if they had no rules then neither did I, but my distaste of a dirty house got the better of me.

When Brent came home to find out what I had done he was a bit baffled and had a harder time letting the kids do their thing but soon joined in the fun. For family night we talked about how the day was and I asked them(mostly Hunter) how they enjoyed their day and if they would like to do it again tomorrow. Hunter thought for a moment and decided he would like to have rules but couldn't exactly tell me why. We talked about the importance of rules and some funny examples of good rules like stopping at a red light and looking both ways to cross the street," and hold hands" Sienna piped in, and brushing our teeth to prevent cavities:) It was a good end to the day. The kids helped us make a list of rules and decide upon consequences. Hunter informed us that he will not need the consequence because he is going to follow all of them. I am sure tomorrow will be a good day and who knows how long he will remember after that.

All in all it was a nice break in the chain of life and I think everyone deserves a day without any rules once in a while,if just to make them aprreciate them more.