Family Rules

"Our homes should be places where the Spirit of the Lord is felt in rich abundance and where the scriptures and the gospel are studied, taught, and lived. What a difference it would make in the world if all people would see themselves as makers of righteous homes. Let us defend the home as a place which is second only to the temple in holiness."  ~Bonnie L. Oscarson

About a month ago, after some training as a health coach, I realized that in order for our family to have our trust established, we all need to be on the same page, and that our kids needed to have input in the order of our home. We were experiencing a lot of yelling, tantrums, stomping, and our home did not feel like the temple.   So, we sat down and wrote out how we want the atmosphere in our home to be and then established rules to support those values.  Here's what we came up with as a family:

We all shared input and voted on each rule, and we modified them if there was some concern.  For example, the rules originally said "In this family, we use six-inch voices."  When we voted (using a thumbs up, thumbs down or sideways if you weren't sure about the rule), Jackson was unsure about that rule, and we let him share his feelings.  After he told us his thoughts, we changed the wording to be "in this house," since there will clearly be times that we will want to yell and use a loud voice outside while playing or calling to someone. 

We are still working on these rules and goals, but it is nice to have them written down instead of feeling like Matt and I just make up arbitrary rules.  In fact, just about every concern we have fits under a rule -- I mean, let's face it, the rule "we show respect" is a blanket statement covering anything.  I just made up the graphic yesterday and plan to print it off and hang it in our kitchen or hallway so we can refer to it easily.  Matt and I definitely are not perfect, I'm the number one rule-breaker for #1.   I tend to yell to my kids to come for dinner, etc., instead of walking downstairs to find them.  I'm excited for my kids to hold me accountable to these rules, too.