How to be a Parent Part I

When we went home for Evan's birthday, Evan decided it was time to start writing down our parenting rules . 

We didn't have any paper around within reach while driving between San Angelo and San Antonio, so Evan pulled out my planner and started writing down rules in the back of my planner.  It's titled "How to be a Parent."

Today I was flipping through the pages in class and laughed out loud.  Evan had written his top two rules as "sex" and "lots of sex." Oh, he can dream can't he?  Somehow, I think he skipped over all the parenting chapters that talk about how your sex life decreases in frequency after children come along.  I think he's just convinced that if he writes it down, then "sex" and "lots of sex" will continue to be as amazing as it has been...I hope he's right! : )

Ok, now to being serious.  Hopefully, Evan and I can follow through on all of these rules.

No TV in Bedroom
This rule is Evan's.  Evan and I are allowed to have a TV in our bedroom if we choose of course, but the children are not.  Growing up, I was not allowed a TV in the bedroom and was always really jealous of my friends who had one in their rooms. 

We want the family to be together as much as possible.  That's the best way to really know what's going on with your children.  Things about their day are bound to come out when they're with you for a few hours every night.

No Significant Others in Bedroom.
This was my parent's rule.  We hated the rule.  We're following this rule more strictly than any other. : )

C'mon, you can't expect 17 year olds to not have hormones.  That being said, I should note, I was always a good girl in Evan's house even when we were allowed in the bedrooms.  My Mama raised me right!  However, we don't know if our son's girlfriend's parents raised them right, so we're making sure we don't give them an opportunity to get into trouble.  I don't want my son or daughter on "16 and pregnant" ok?

1 sport, 1 musical activity.  Maximum of 2 activities.
This was also my parent's rule.  I really want to be a working mother.  Fortunately, my husband wants the same thing for me as well (that's another blog post for another day).  Because of this, there is just no way that we can be driving the kids around all the time and still manage having two full time working parents.  Evan nor I will have regular 8 - 5 jobs.  Because of this, having the children in 40 activities is impossible.

Therefore, each child is allowed one sport and one musical activity (preferably piano!! hee hee...that's not a rule, but it's a preference!).

I don't think this rule makes us bad parents.  If anything, I think it shows children that the world doesn't revolve around them and that parents have things to do as well. That's humbling and a great lesson.

Well, there are three rules!  Hopefully our rules sound reasonable to others and hopefully people will tell us some great rules of their own throughout the years...as I said, we want to be excellent parents.  We really really do.  We're lucky because both of our parents were great.  They were supportive and each had pretty different parenting styles so we've taken things we liked from both sets and put them together to find our own little parenting recipe.  I'm sure we'll change our rules and deviate from them all the time.  But I think it's a good sign that we're already thinking about it.  It shows we care and love our children.  Not all kids are that lucky.

I want my Liliana darling to know that we won't always be perfect as parents, but that we're always trying our best.  I love her so much already...I just hope I can be the Mother she deserves.