We have three main rules in our house, under which all the others can be neatly tucked.
This morning I decided to sit down with Maymo and Middle One (who are home for a PD day) to make a list of our important rules, and some less-important rules, in the hopes that I can put together a nifty little graphic that sums them up. Sort of like a family mission statement, but different.
(Maymo kept trying to give very specific rules – “no juggling with knives” came up a few times.)
After about 10 minutes of chatting, we came up with the following. There are 3 main rules, one bonus rule, and one “what to do if you don’t like the rules” rule. I’m impressed!
1. Be Safe
- No touching other people without permission
- No running in the house
- Don’t throw things!
- Don’t answer the door if Mom and Dad aren’t home
- Use common sense!
- Follow the rules at school and in the community
2. Be Respectful
- Don’t touch other people’s things without permission
- No slamming doors!
- No littering
- If it’s empty, refill it
- If it needs to be replaced, tell Mom and Dad
- If you’re not sure, ask!
- If you ask for it, eat it
- Clean up after yourself
- Get up on time and leave on time
- Say goodbye when you leave
- Make sure people know where you’re going and when you’ll be back
- If you answer the phone, write down the message
- Say please and thank you
- No swearing at other people
- Respect people’s space (like their bedroom)
- Knock before entering a room with a closed door
- Be quiet before 10 a.m. on weekends and holidays
- Use indoor voices when you’re indoors
- Take care of your stuff
- Take care of your body
- Tell the truth
- Don’t annoy other people intentionally
- Follow the rules (even if you don’t like them!)
3. Be Kind
- Say nice things about people
- Don’t be mean
- Help people at home and everywhere else
- Share stuff
- Pet the animals and play with them
- Do nice things for other people
- Say “I love you!”
Bonus Rule: Always do your best!
If You Don’t Like a Rule:
1. Keep following the rule anyway!
2. Tell Mom & Dad you want to talk about it
3. When you sit down to talk to Mom & Dad,
- know why the rule is in place
- know why you want to change it
- have suggestions for the change
4. Give Mom & Dad time to think about it and talk about it.
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THey are great rules and great brainstorming. But too long for your poster. I think you should just post up “no juggling with knifes” and be done with it.
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I’m going to have to pare them all down somehow, but I can’t figure out how because COME ON, these are AWESOME rules.
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Those are great! I need to sit down with my spawn and do the same. And I will, once the urge to strangle them goes away :-)
(this has not been a very good week in our house. lots of whining, complaining, and doing stupid things. ugh.)
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I have never felt the need to actually document our house rules. I don’t know what that says about us.
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I was curious, first, to see what rules they’d pull out – like, “Rinse your toothpaste out of the sink” or “Don’t steal your brother’s money” or “Don’t juggle knives”. I mean, the “if you answer the phone, write down the message” rule hasn’t ever been enforced (because no one ever answer the phone around here, for pete’s sake) but it was one of the first ones to come out of Middle One’s mouth for some reason.
When we finished, Middle One commented, “Man, we don’t really have many rules, huh?” which I found entertaining since it was 2 pages of hand-written stuff. Maymo was all, “That’s not many rules at all.”
I also enjoyed that Middle One kept saying, “It’s just common sense! Can’t we just write down ‘use your common sense’ for everything?”
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Frame that! “USE YOUR COMMON SENSE!!”
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Hahahahahahaha! Middle One’s other big suggestion was, “DON’T BE STUPID.”
So, I’m going to make three posters – one that says, “NO JUGGLING KNIVES” and one that says, “USE YOUR COMMON SENSE” and one that says, “DON’T BE STUPID”.
Then one that says: Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Kind.
Huh. I think we’ve NAILED this!
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So… juggling with knives is ok then?
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Yes, yes it is.
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video. You first.
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No, no, it’s OPTIONAL. It’s not a requirement.
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Thanks for the link!
We love ours. Everyone comments on it when they come over. It helps to have what you about hanging up to remind everyone too.
Have a great day!-
It’s a GREAT idea, Katie! Thanks for writing that post! :)
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we would also add “compromise” and “treat other people how you would like to be treated” under Be Kind.
no juggling with knives is awesome!
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also, because my kids are a bit younger than yours, i’d add ‘no cooking without supervision’. god, they love to experiment in the kitchen, which is great, as long as the do it safely
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