So lately the boys have been obsessed with pretend fighting each other. I'm not exactly thrilled about their choice of activity. I do not understand it nor do I enjoy the inevitable "Mommy, he hurt me" or the excuse, "Well, I didn't want to fight, but he made me" that always ends their fighting session James has told me that it is only natural for boys to want to fight each other, but we just need to lay some ground rules regarding it.
Rule #1: Both parties must agree to participate in the "fight"
Rule #2: Prior to the fight, both parties must ask permission from a parent
Rule #3: Getting hurt is a risk of playing fight so the other party will not get in trouble if there is an injury (of
course, unless it was a completely flagrant foul)
Rule #4: If you can't handle Rules # 1-3, then you can not fight
Here's to hoping that this helps my sanity!
On another note, Samara has a new house rule applied to her. She is no longer allowed to play with the dog's water bowl. This evening while I was making dinner, I felt her behind me and I looked down to see what she was up to. The little dear was taking George's water from his bowl and "washing" her hair with it. Um, did you throw up in your mouth a little like I did when I saw that? Yeah, the girl is banned from the bowl. I'm hoping that her bath tonight got rid of the dog slobber smell. What is funny, though, is she is not a fan of getting her hair washed during bath time, but she has no problems with George's water. G-gross!!! That's a story that we'll probably share with her boyfriends to scare them off.
So you are now the official zebra Mommy, huh? Do you have a shiny whistle too? What I want to know is will you throw the white flag when the foul is committed? And will that penalty be helpful jobs . . . like guarding George's water dish:)?
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of leverage through storytelling; you seem to have the goods to survive the mom game. Go home team!