OH MY GOSH - PRE-TEENS!!

September 21, 2004 and my boys will be 12 years old! 12 years ago I could never have imagined we would have 2 such great kids! Gosh, who would ever had thought we would make it this long and with little or no problems?

So what's the greatest thing about having 2 pre-teen's in the house? The fact that we can now leave them home alone for extended periods of time. AND, that we can do this and not worry about anything happening to them or the house!

What I'm not so sure about, is how we ended up with 2 such great kids. I don't consider myself a great parent and there are certainly things I could have done better or differently. This has definitely been a "learn as you go" experience (and is ongoing, I might add). I think all parents go through this same "learning" as their own children grow up. I also think one can read all the books that have been written about parenting and still go through the same things all other parents go through. I guess all we can do is offer "advice" on parenting to others and let them go on their way.

So, back to the idea of leaving the boys alone. A few days ago I had to leave my boys alone all day; 9:00-3:30 (not quite all day, but at least a school day's worth of hours). They were supposed to go to a movie with their Uncle, but it didn't work out; so instead they stayed home alone. Was I worried about them? NO. Oh sure, I thought about them and I felt bad that they were home all by themselves; but they were fine! Now the question is, why were they fine? Because, somehow we managed to raise 2 boys who know how to take care of themselves and they respect and understand the rules that we have set into place.

The rules when they are home alone: do not answer the phone (wait until the answering machine picks up and we start to leave a message - then pick it up); do not go out in the front yard (they can play in the back yard) and do not answer the front door. That's it - those are the rules when leave them home alone! 3 simple rules and they follow them to a T!

We had a family on my boys' hockey team a couple years ago. They said their son doesn't follow their rules no matter what they tell him. I told them, "You tell your son your rules and he should follow them, no questions asked." Their response was that he knows the rules, he just decides what to do on his own. Obviously something is not right there. My kids know the rules and follow them. I must add that they question them sometimes, but then we negotiate and work it out.

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