By Barbara Rowley
updated 6:17 p.m. EDT, Sat June 30, 2007
Story Highlights:
# Clarity, enforceability make quirky parenting rules work
# Successful rules usually give kids some measure of control
# Parents have to be consistent for any rule to work
I’ve made a lot of bad rules in the decade I’ve been a mom, from irrational threats (“No graham crackers in the house ever again if you eat them in the living room even one more time”) to forbidding human nature (“You may not fight with your sister”).
But occasionally I’ve come up with rules that work better than I’d ever contemplated. These made-up rules have an internal logic that defies easy categorization, but their clarity and enforceability make them work. Several of them are not, technically, rules at all, but declarations of policy or fact. And they’re all easy to remember. A few personal favorites, plus those of other moms:
