I was thinking today about how, even though I have 6 children, with my youngest two I feel like a neophyte parent. My children were 23, 20, 17, 15, 7, and 4 when I left the Family in 1999. Now, the oldest is married, the next 3 are in college, and the two youngest boys are in high school and middle school. They don't rememember the Family at all, other than a vague memory or two of a dog we had in our last Home, etc.

I have found over the last seven years that there are so many parenting issues that come up that I have no experience with, or were "handled" by Family policies. Like television watching, bedtimes, curfews, allowance, to name just a few. It's kind of funny, because friends at work just kind of assume I have it all figured out by now, after all, they are kids # 5 and 6, and yet, there is an awful lot of trial and error involved. In some ways, frankly, it was a whole lot easier to just fall back on "it's the Family rule" rather than have to enlist the kids' cooperation in things like TV watching and going to bed at a certain time.

I find it quite a challenge to find the right balance between saying "that's the rule" and enlisting their cooperation by explaining why something is for their benefit- like getting a certain number of hours of sleep per night because it's healthier, will make them better students, etc. (which gets met with strong skepticism and even disbelief).

I'm curious as to how others handle this "it's the rule" vs. "here's why it's good for you, don't you agree?" methods, as well as other issues.

Laura