It happens suddenly...

In our house, there are rules. There has always been rules, and I am sure, sort of a nuclear Holocaust, there will always be rules. And as with any rule, there are consequences. If you follow the rules, A happens. If you don't follow the rules B happens. I grew up that way, and so did my husband. I think its very good for my children. And I will say, that although we have rules, we do sometime break them. (IE eating of the cookies before dinner, so much so that it sometime results in little eating of dinner.) And I am okay with this. For if I was to follow every rule, all day long, that is all I would ever do. Enforce rules. I wouldn't have time to eat, sleep, or think for myself. So breaking of the rules is necessary, and sometimes that includes letting my children think they pulled one over on mom. (Now, let me be clear this does not apply with really big things like teaching her sister to play in the toilet, or the use of a knife to cut open the box, even if she feels that she has "grown bigger enough" :)

But sometimes, I find that I must have not been following the rules enough. I must have over looked that attitude one to many times. For all of the sudden I am hit with something. It might be big, such has the throwing of a tantrum in the middle of walmart, because we can't "eat here." Or it might be as little, (well, less noticeable anyways) as when I ask for her to put away a toy, she says, "I can't, I am playing with moon sand." It is in these moments that I think, I can't believe she just did that. My little precious three year old, when did she become a teenager. And it is in these moments that I vow to do a little better, try to be more proactive in making sure she doesn't act like a heathen, and tell her that she will not play with moon sand for one more minute if she talks that way to me again, and demand that she put the toy away. To which she agrees, because after all wasn't she just testing the limits?

We really should be paid more... :) I think I will go get that extra hug for today!