Rule Breaking

Before I had children, I had a lot of good ideas concerning how to raise small people.

Now that I have children, I guess I still have some okay ideas about what SHOULD be done, but my theories have not always aligned with my actions.

We have broken a lot of our own self-imposed Child Rearing Rules. And it seems like the more kids we have, the more rules we break.

At London's first birthday party she was offered an organic, sugar free tower of stacked, neutral-colored "cakes", consisting primarily of carrots and wheat germ. At Piper's first birthday party she had a tower of box-mix cake layered with pink and purple sugar-laden icing.

Some days, when the kids request a special "PJ Day", I let them stay in their pajamas all day long. And then sleep in the same pajamas that evening. What a time saver!

I think last summer we had watermelon as an entire meal more than once.

I allowed Piper Finn, not even two years old yet, to consume a root beer flavored lollipop in the grocery store this week.

I'm pretty sure I am not alone in the rule-breaking way of life. What parenting "rules" have you let slide when real life meets idealism?