Remember the Times I said "YES"

I have spent the better part of my parenting years telling my children "no!" As they have grown-up, they have selectively eliminated several of the rules they were previously taught which they now view as bogus. Nevertheless, I am a firm believer that there are some things you just don't do.

I have a very long list of words that I hate! My children have always known what they are and have been careful not to use them - at least around me. We have the standard rules of politeness. Don't talk with your mouth full. Don't reach across the table. Don't put your elbows on the table. Say please and thank you! Everyone in the family knows the rules. They may not always obey them, but they know what they are!

We have other rules too. No rollerblading in the house. No air soft gun wars in the house. No wrestling in the living room. No eating on the sofa. Take off your cleats at the back door.

The rules of cleanliness are everyone's favorites to ignore. Don't leave your dirty clothes on the bathroom floor. No wet towels in the bedroom. Hang up, pick up and put away!! Put the lid on the toothpaste. Rinse out the sink after you spit.

The kids have added their own version of some rules. "If you can't make your bed right . . . mom will make it!" And my personal favorite, "The dog did it!"

Sometimes when I think of the number of years I have spent trying to enforce all the "don'ts" in life, I am overwhelmed. I hope that occasionally my children will remember some of the times I actually said "yes!"

There were those bizarre and rare occasions when they could truthfully say, "My mom let's us do that!"

Remember when you used to:

*Throw wet paper towels into the ceiling fan and try to catch them when they came flying out.

*Slide down the stairs in a sleeping bag.

*Build forts out of blankets and pipes.

*Hold secret "club" meetings on the roof of the shed by the light of the disco ball.

*Make a two-story fort out of the old, torn-down pieces of wooden fence.

*Create a water park out of tarps, the swing set slide and dishwashing soap.

*Catch lizards and frogs in the yard and keep them as pets.

*Make haunted houses with Halloween costumes in the basement.

*Shoot each other with air soft guns while jumping on the tramp.

*Make snowboarding jumps in the front yard and on the deck.

*Play baseball and football in the basement (with a foam ball, of course).

*Play endless hours of hide-and-seek in the dark.

It is no wonder that the glass has been broken out of most of my picture frames. It is not surprising that our house is well-lived in and that the furniture is well-worn. There are holes in the fence from ill-aimed golf balls and miss-shot arrows. They will probably be there forever . . as a reminder that sometimes in life, Mom actually said, "Yes!"