Rules

 As a parent (especially a full time stay at home mommy) of a girl and a boy, I often feel responsible for their wellbeing and  everything else , including the good and behavior/ manners, character building, knowledge etc. 

Most of the time they are easy, especially if I am being patient and reasonable; but there are moments they turn into angry dinosaur, normally in my bad days where I losses it too! Yes, I do yelled. You got to understand, kids are naturally "mom-bullier". They can be an angel to everyone but a little devil  challenging mommy. When I hear someone praises them for behaving, I secretly rolled my eyes and thought " yeah you have no idea my dear". 

Anyway, I do have some rules for kids to strictly followed: 

1. Holding adults' hand at the carpark/ pathway. 

2. Holding adults' hand when it's crowded (eg. markets, malls)

3. Do not eat anything given by others before asking mommy and daddy. 

4. Do not walk into an empty elevator by yourself.

5. Do not go on the escalator without holding adults' hand. 

My kids got praise for their willingness to hold hands when we are out. Some parents complaining how their kids don't listen, ran off by themselves, refuses to hold any adults' hand while they are out. My instant thought is "huh? what do you mean they just ran off and refuse to hold hands? they are kids, you are an adult, you can hold them if you want to!" .  

Okay. Let me put it this way, there are one thing I don't allow kids to negotiate, safety. Of course I explained the consequence, the danger behind it. This is how I do it since they are able to walk: 

- holding hands while walking in a carpark / pathways/ malls. if they try to fight off, knee down and explain why I have to hold them, assuring them once we arrives at the park/ playground/ safe area to run free, I'll let go. 

- if they insist of not holding your hands, go home immediately (trust me I went home a few times). 

Also, I talk to my kids like adult. I explain the facts that if they don't hold my hands and accident happened, they will end up being hurt and might need to be hospitalised or worst, die. K is almost 3.5 year old, she will tell D who is almost 2 year old, in her word "Dayday if you don't hold hands car will bang you and you can't see mommy and you can't see daddy, because you hurt" . 

So, next time when you thought your kids don't hold hands and ran off , while worrying and complaining, perhaps think twice, is it really kids' don't hold ? Or you allow them to do so? 

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