A-Z on Mondays: R is for Rules

OK ... so I think that the A-Z gang is onto V at this point - but I love my "R" idea and I wanted to post about it!


R is for Rules. Around February I noticed that things were getting out of control. Correction: things were already out of control. The girls had officially entered the "two-going-on-three" phase and were testing their limits. I was at my friend Michelle's house (a fellow twin mommy) and she had a nice set of rules hanging up in her playroom. While I didn't copy HER rules, I did copy the idea and hung them on the wall right next to the kitchen table.

The first four rules were first. Maddie had entered a complete shrieking and screaming stage where anytime she was upset - anytime at all - she just lost it and shrieked at the top of her lungs. Ear piercing. So I made rule number one "No Yelling." Well, apparantly yelling does not equate to screaming (or crying for that matter) and I had to add the last two rules.

Maddie (who is already reading - long story ...) read the rules over and over and over and over out loud that first day - and that was that. She had them memorized. Mind you, she didn't follow them. She just knew them.

A few weeks ago we were taking the girls out of the bath and Maddie was getting impatient that we-just-weren't-moving-along-fast-enough. She started fussing and whining and twisting and kicking. It was driving me nuts.

I yelled , "Maddie - no kicking! Number one rule!"

She looked at me - and in the same whining tone of voice said, "No, Mommy! Number one is "No Yelling!"

And continued her tantrum.