Be a Rule Breaker

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With a family of my size, we need to have some pretty strict rules in place for eating. Eating is to be done at meal times, and snacks we do as a group if at all, and it is usually when we go outside for recess. If every kid who lives here had a snack in-between every meal and at a time of their choosing, my kitchen would continuously have someone in it. The kitchen would never close. A clean kitchen is something I must have in order to make a meal, and I don’t know about your kids, but mine have a definition of clean that is different from mine unless I am the one to insist that it is done to my satisfaction.

Because we ate dinner at the ballpark last night during baseball, people were more interested in running off and having fun than they were in eating the dinner we brought. Even after reminding my kids that there would be no more food for the night since it would be so late when we got home, they were perfectly content in choosing to be hungry.

I’m sure it is not surprising to hear that the minute we got in the car to come home the complaints about being hungry started rolling in. I listened to it for a few minutes, and then I responded with my usual, “I’m sorry, I can understand how you would be hungry, and I’m sorry that you will be going to bed hungry.”

I have trained my kids well enough to know that once I respond, the issue is closed.

So at home everyone went to work with showers and getting their chores done.

Because we were having a busy day today with baseball and some other things, I wasn’t going to be home much. I like being proactive with things like this, so I set about making fries and grilling burgers for dinner tonight. I am all about being efficient in the kitchen.

Then the rule breaking happened.

Once I had everything made, I called the kids to the table, and we ate the dinner I made for today. We talked, we laughed, and we just enjoyed being together even though it was well after nine by the time we got done. No one went to bed hungry.

It felt good.

For me it was breaking my “no second meal” rule, but what rule could you break to be intentional this weekend? What could you do to communicate that you are listening to your children and that maybe life can be a little spontaneous, even if you are breaking rules in the process?

Have some fun with your kids this weekend. Here and here are some ideas that could get you started. Maybe you could dance in the rain, maybe you could forget your usual weekend work and just have a picnic, go to the beach, or watch movies all day in your pajamas. The options are endless. Just pick one and go with it.

What rule can you break to show your kids you love them? Share it in the comments, we can all get some ideas from one another!