Household Rules

clean up after yourself

no rules

Laura,
Hosehold rules for a family of nine became amusing after the kids all grew up and have families of their own. They now sit on the counters and the arms of furniture, wear hats while they eat and many many others things.
The one they laugh about the most is the one I did post on the refrigerator one night which read:" Do not talk to me between the hours of 4PM and 8PM if you want to stay healthy." That was when my hormones dropped and regretfully when the kids came home from school and neded to share. It didn't last long. I learned patience.
Barbara S.

Aim first then fire - Living in a house with three guys is not always pleasant

I have a 13 year old step-daughter who does not like to keep herself clean or do the one chore that she was given. What I want for Christmas is for her to actually bath properly and take out the gosh darn trash.
We have five people and five animals in our house right now so rules are a must right now.

no house rules, but i would like "pick up clothes off the floor"

I wish that everyone would put things back where they got them. Then the scissors would be in the drawer, the brushes would be in the bathroom, and I wouldn't have to search for my recipe box when I want to bake something.

dirty dishes in the dishwasher, toilet seat down, make your bed.

With a 5 yr old, a 2.5yr old, a 4 month old, and oh yeah a 31 yr old (hubby), I'm constantly after everyone but the baby to pick things up and keep them from being underfoot where I'll trip on them. lol.. sometimes difficult to do with all the toys everywhere.

You sound organized which is great! My main rule is to be kind to others which we work on a lot. We work on cleaning up after ourselves often also. My 8 year old is pretty good about cleaning up after himself but my youngest tries all kinds of tactics to get out of stuff. It's a long road.

my daughter uses the one, two, three

The kids have to keep their rooms clean- they pick up nightly (in theory) and have an enforced cleanup time every weekend to fully clean their rooms.

The older two have chores they are required to do, and get an allowance if they do them.

They are required to clean up their own messes.

They are allowed to say whether or not another sibling can be in their room.

They have to go into their bedrooms an hour before bedtime for quiet time- no tv, no talking to each other, just reading a book and cleaning up their rooms.

They are required to say please and thank you- most kids are, I know, but I'm still amazed at how rude some kids are away from their parents. On the other hand, I get compliments from teachers quite often on how polite they are. We also usually get complimented a time or two by random strangers any time we go out to eat.

They are not allowed to interupt- if they do, whoever is speaking stops, asks them to wait a moment until we are done, then resumes thier conversation.

We don't give bad behviour rewards- we don't promise them items, or tv time, or computer time if they misbehave. Instead, we tell them if they want to keep misbehaving, it will either be nap time, or bed time for the night.

They are not allowed to ask for items twice if we say no- I don't mind them asking "Mom, can we get this kind of cereal?", but if I say no, we can't, I don't want to hear them asking over and over again, as (again) many kids do.


I don't see us as strict parents, because we really aren't. We let the kids have a lot of freedom and independance, we teach them how to behave right, and spoil them occasionally. But we don't tolerate spoiled behaviour, or allow bad behaviour to get out of hand.

I think I'm going to implement a house rule about checking your pockets before you throw stuff into the wash. I've washed a few pieces of paper, a permanent marker, and probably more. But my fiance almost washed his flash drive today... the one that he was positive he had left at my mom's house...

Oh, yeah, pockets with kids are the worst- I've ruined an entire load of laundry when crayons made it through the wash. I found them after the wash cycle, and removed all of them- or so I thought. I missed 1 red crayon, which melted in the dryer cycle, and stained all the clothes irreperably. I was UNHAPPY.

I've also had silly putty go through the wash. Grrr..

I would be happy if everyone just picked up after themselves!

Rules...what are rules?? LOL My kids keep up with thier own messes, so I am quite happy!

WwW.SparkleTags.Com


Thanks for stopping in and leaving comments on my images, just returning the favor!! Great image by the way, thanks for sharing.

My son still has trouble with house rules! My daughter too for that matter! She's 2 1/2 but she is learning to hang her jacket up when she comes in and she is very proud of herself about it!

Thanks for commenting on my Flax Seed article! I left a reply there for you!

I like our rule that we treat each other with kindness and respect. If the kids are arguing (which believe it or not they don't do it often) They get a five minute time out away from each other then they have to apologize.

I also like the rule that if the kids don't do something we tell them to do the first time we tell them then they lose five minutes off their bedtime. They both have started listening way better since we started that. The kids like the rule that if they get "green" days (good behavior) at school we put money in a jar for them and double it on fridays!

I don't have kids. That is not to say that we don't have rules in our house. They are just not as strict as they would be for a household that has kids.

Wow, I didn't expect so many responses!

Heather, sounds like you've got your house rules well established.

I'll second the rest of you on the laundry rules! My son confuses the hamper with the trash can, thankfully, he doesn't use them unless told to do do!

I was not organized until I became caregiver to an elderly lady with COPD. Everything had its place, and I learned to put everything into a specific place...even in the dishwasher (forks lower left, spoons lower right, knives upper left, sharp knives upper right - point down).

My friend passed on last year, but her lessons linger on.

In my home, I'm very Australian, "No Rules, Just Right".

I'm the only one living in my apartment (unless you count my stuffed animals, but they are very well-behaved, lol). I do keep a to-do list, but try not to make myself crazy feeling like I have to get everything done yesterday.
I have friends who have weekly family meetings where everyone can talk about and work out whatever they need to. They find it very helpful. And they have a chore list I think, as well.