I used to have a sign on the wall detailing some of the rules of our home, separated into three main categories...safety, health and convenience. Safety rules were written in red, health in green, and convenience in yellow sharpie. Red rules were inviolable. Green rules were bendable... sometimes, and yellow rules were most flexible, depending upon the present needs of the family of one of its individuals.
My kids were never great rule followers, each breaking them in their own way, for their own purposes. I realized that they did not have the foresight to understand what might happen if they broke a rule, and that the consequences could be disastrous. We live on a small river in SE Wisconsin, in a three level house on a hill with multiple entrances to be monitored. When the kids were smaller, we had a 'red' rule that they could not leave the house without permission. Later, as they grew, the red rule was crossed out.... Modified. They could leave the house to play in the front yard, but could not go past the pole in the back without putting on a life jacket.
Green rules have not been altered... They have just faded over time as they were internalized. Some rules remain bright, such as Eat Your Colors, Every Day, and brush AND floss, but others have faded such as my personal favorite, "wipe, flush, wash" r
We have gone through many iterations of the red rules, now permitting them to kayak up the river, so long as they have told someone where they are going and when they will return.
