Mommy rules?

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My middle child daughter surprised me the other day:

"We have hardly ANY rules at our house."

She'd been visiting a friend's house, obviously, where they didn't eat in the living room, cut paint and paste on the dining room table, you know, GOOD parenting.

I thought about it for a minute, and realized just how many rules there ARE in my house:

• Very little is as important as what you children are interested in.

• Mommy will be there whenever she possibly can, which is most of the time.

• Don't hurt each other and don't hurt yourself. When mommy says "dangerous"? That's the law.
  

• Making something is much more valuable than buying something. Shopping is not a leisure activity.

Recently I had to sit down with all the children and explain to them that getting to school, church, and yes, BED on time were essential to 'making things work' around here. Getting homework done was also required. That's four things, and even my youngest could handle remembering that (and has to have her own 'homework' as a result, ha).

And last night same middle child asked THAT question: "which of us do you like the most?"

Oh, there's a very big rule about that. Mommies MUST like all their children the same.

"Oh. I saw something...." She thought about it for a second. "But that was just a TV show."

Yep.

***

So thinking about this some more and I'm kind of shocked that with a few variations I'm actually using the exact same rules I grew up with. So my question for parents is, are you? Do you do things the opposite of your parents or the same? I don't want anyone to feel they have to dig out and vent the painful aspects of their childhood, goodness knows I've got mine. But I happily invite you to tell us what a good parent you are, and how rules and parenting fit in the path of doing the best you can.