"No no no is all I hear!"

A month or so ago, the endless sass from my seven year old grew too much to bear and I was compelled to draw up some good old fashioned house rules:

Nothing too fancy, just the kind of basic behavioral foundation that civilizations require. Upon posting them in the front hall, I felt good, like we were turning a corner. Until the graffiti showed up, which took all of a three minutes and was accompanied by many high-pitched snickers: "No no no is all I here [sic]!" wrote Stella.

Predicable as it may have been, the failure of my benevolent matriarchy had me stumped. What's a mom to do?

I pondered for a good while, then decided to crowdsource — I asked Stella and Zoey to come up with some rules. Stella took the task on with an earnest diligence.


First, there was the matter of the title. She didn't like calling them house rules and so renamed them the 'together rules.' I liked where she was going.


And here's where she ended up —The Chester Vance Together Rules:


Rule A: Respect each other.

Rule B: Doors are open to helpful friends.

Rule C: Friday is room cleaning day.

Rule D: Put back what you take out.

Rule E: Lend a helping hand.

 

Then, she added a little epilogue about how the rules were not hard and fast, meaning that you just had to do you best. "It is all just trying." 

Rule F is Zoey's, and  focuses on the behavior of monsters.

Zoey's Rule: Monsters have to share their cookies, lots of cookies.

While I was initially tempted to conclude with a mildly snarky parental comment about the rare but occasional similarities between the behavior of monsters and the small people in my house, I'm going to take the Chester Vance Together Rule A to heart. It's a good one.