"Old School" Parenting Is Hard!

Doing laundry today, and I put the girls' clothes on Kensi's bottom bunk. Our rule is that even though they have school, they still have to put their own clothes away on laundry day. It got me thinking about the "rules" and things we have for the house. Sunday being the girls' "clean room" day, Wednesday and the weekend is laundry day so they put their own clothes away, doing dishes every night after supper...ect. Some days I worry that I'm putting too much on them too fast. But the other part of me says that they're old enough to handle some responsibility. There are a lot of days that they go without doing dishes and sometimes I put their clothes away for them. I'm not like a drill sergeant in that respect.

But we also have "rules" that I'm sure not a lot of other kids have. The girls won't get cell phones for a long while yet. Grant and I both don't see a reason for them to have them this young...or for the next few years. I know the argument is what if something happens to them, or parents want to know when they're getting home from school and such like that. I get it. For us, it doesn't really seem to be an issue. Living literally across from the school negates a lot of the reasons why I'd consider giving them a phone.  With the rise and huge success of technology, it seems like faces are buried in phones or tablets or some sort of screen like never before. Growing up in the birth of technology has me in an interesting position. On the one hand, I remember what life was like without all of it, and a lot of it was good. We played outside almost constantly, whether we wanted to or not. If we wanted to find out if our friends can come out and play, we went over to their house and asked. If I wasn't home by the time I should be, I had a search party or landline network after me. Life was just so much simpler.

Now, I feel like Grant and I are the odd parents out. So many kids have phones/tablets/iPads and we have no desire to get them one. I started swaying over to the tablet side recently because I'm scared we're going to hear "but all my friends have one" pretty soon. It's always been a worry of mine, and I'm not sure how we're going to solve it yet. The girls just don't need one. Yes, it helps with education, and it is just fun....but they can get those by playing other ways too. If their friends want to get ahold of them, then they can call the "house phone", which right now is my cell. I would like to get an actual landline for that reason at some point. Plus, I'm always at home right now. Even when William gets into school, I don't plan on going back to work like full time. It'll be enough to help with the bills, but I'll still be home to get them off to school and be back by the time they're done.

Punishments are also a delicate balance nowadays too. What used to be considered discipline is now looked at as abuse. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about the straight up beating kids or smacking them around. No, I'm talking about the butt swats, or spankings if that's what you prefer to call it. Yes, there is a fine line between the two, but it seems like no matter how you say it or what context you put it in, if anyone so much as HEARS that your hand connected to your child's butt or back of the head, then you should have CPS called on you. I'm not about that. I give my kids a butt swat if they need one. I have never left a mark and it's never hurt so bad they couldn't sit down, so calm down people.

Rewards seem to have astronomically increased too! I never got stickers or a sticker chart for being good. It was expected of me to be good. If I wasn't, there was consequences. I learned quick what was acceptable and what was not. I don't remember ever getting a reward for good grades or anything like that. Now it seems like a kid says "excuse me" after farting and people want to throw them a damn parade. It's no wonder that kids are turning out to be little shits. It amazes me that I read/hear so much of parents that are just IRATE that their kid didn't win something when someone else was better. My little brother told me a story of why the school "store" was shut down, and I was just dumfounded. In a nutshell, because a kid stole something and the teacher got in trouble because of it. How does that make any logical sense? It doesn't, that's how.

I never want our kids to think that the world revolves around them. It doesn't. Kids need to work for what they want. Life isn't a silver platter to be given because they're breathing. I should hope that the more we can get back to "basics" of parenting, the better off we'll be. But I'm pretty doubtful that'll ever happen. If nothing else, it'll happen in our house.

Why get dressed?

Today is Wednesday, which means it's my cleaning day. The day where I clean the house from top to bottom. I basically do all the house chores that I had as a kid. I realized that unless I take a day and just totally clean the house, I don't keep up with it as much.

Cleaning day also means I don't really go anywhere. I think the farthest I go is to the mailbox and back. Unless something happens, I really don't leave the house. Well hell, I don't leave the house much anyway. I go to town here and there with William, but mostly I'm at home all the time.

As I was getting dressed, I had a thought. What's the point of getting dressed if I know I'm not going anywhere. Seems like such a waste of clean clothes to me. Being the one that does laundry, that means more laundry I need to do. I know, I know....what if something happens and I do need to be seen? I do get dressed every day, just in case. But some days it's hard. I mean, no one is going to see me so why put in all that effort? Especially if I know Grant isn't going to be home anyway. It's not like I have anyone I need to impress. So far, really the only time I had a spontaneous trip to town is on the weekends when Grant's home and he just randomly asks me if I'm ready to go. I've learned that trick in the 12 years we've been together. I don't get a lot of notice that we're leaving. But during the week....it's mostly just me and William.

But I am showered. I am dressed. I am ready for the day. Now....let's go house...it's you and me baby!!