Parents Pick Your Battles

On the way home from Church today I found myself, as usual, telling random things to my husband. It started with Isaac burping and then saying "Ha, Isabel, I burped on you!" The other incident that reminded of my upbringing was Isabel complaining about Olivia and Monica sharing secrets and not telling her about them. Secret sharing was a big no no at my house! It would get you a look of death if mom caught you.

I told him my parents were obsessed with manners, you couldn't sing at the table, no burping, no tooting, no picking your nose and no sharing secrets, among many many other bad manners, accident or not, they were not tolerated. I have nothing against good manners, in fact as a mother I teach my children to use good manners at all times.

My children get away with not minding their manners when it's an accident, if it's not in public and they say excuse me. So my point is, finally, that although my kids have manners they do occasionally burp on their sister, share whispering secrets, and sing at the table....however we have put our foot down on that one, cause, well....my parents knew what they were doing that time, the singing sucks more than it sounds good, so it's just a rule for the parents sanity! Yes, my parents were strict with manners but what I am trying to say is pick your battles....do you want your kids to have good manners or your grandchildren? Because in my parents case their kids had perfect manners, but when let loose into the big wide world, when offspring were involved...their grandchildren get to slide because the rules were too strict and I don't want to battle the manners 24/7.