Different Rules For Different People

 

"There will always be different rules for different people" - The Cheeky Grandpa

 

   One of my father's pet peeves were the four of us Cheeky boys handing out rules that were never lived by. My younger brother was the worst. He'd dictate hard and fast rules to our youngest brother, and promptly NOT live by them. Even my own father had the best advice in life that he preferred NOT to live by. The concept was that there will always be people that has certain rules they wanted everyone else to live by, that they themselves would never have to follow. Infuriating isn't it?

 

   Now that I'm a father, trying to teach the concept rules is tricky. What are the family rules verses the rules of society? What code of ethics and conduct do I teach my children to follow, and just what the heck am I teaching them about when EVERYONE else doesn't fall in line with that?

 

   We have a number of children in our neighborhood. A few of the parents could not care any less about what their kids do our in our 'hood. These neighbor children boss each other around, get into whatever they want, and eat whatever they want whenever they want. So when I have to tell our own children that we're not having whatever junk food is on the menu for the day, there's much complaining about what's "not fair" in their eyes. I have to explain that our family doesn't each a family size bag of Doritos right before dinner. I know, call me crazy, right?

 

   As I was writing this post, I struck up a conversation with my sister-in-law about the general idea around this topic of "how we do things as a family". Her bottom line was  that we might just get by if we all chill a bit. That includes me. She also reminded me how quickly we forget how we did things once upon a time. Parents of tweens forget what it was like to have newborn. Parents with young children don't yet know what it's like to party into the night with older ones when curfew doesn't apply.

 

   As was said before, there will always be different rules for different people. I suppose it's the duty of us all to respect each other's choice to rules and work together to co-exist in the best way possible. Thoughts?

 

J.