After a brief skirmish this morning the kids and I compiled some rules for the summer.  These will be updated on July 1 when the new allowance regime begins, but in the meantime…

1. No touching other people’s toys without permission.

2. No physical or verbal violence or abuse.

3. Mom is always the referee. Period.

4. No snacks without permission.

5. If you leave dishes downstairs you lose downstairs food privileges for two days.

6. Say, “excuse me” if you want to talk to Mom and she is busy doing something

7. Talk one at a time, not over top of each other.

8. No checking out. No matter how mad or upset you are, you cannot check out. You are part of this family, you will participate.

The problem is, my kids are 9 and 12 and quite smart. Which means as soon as I post the rules they will be looking for ways to wheedle around said rules.  Hmmm, maybe that becomes rule #9, no wheedling.  The consequences are picking a chore from the fight jar.  The chores mostly revolve around weed pulling and room cleaning.  I also have to finish building the “spinner of sassyness”.  Rozii did the art work so I just have to add the spinning arrow.  This is for the little smartass’ that my children are becoming.

ahhhh, summer.  so relaxing.