Somethings I Have Learned as a Parent

Some of the things I have learned as a parent are that it doesn't pay to worry about small stuff. A great book is "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff." I use it in my classroom when I have students that seem to fix on something and cannot get over it. I apply much of its suggestions in my own life.
Another thing I learned while raising my great (most parents believe they have great kids) is that limit your rules to the important things. While at work one day I was sitting there think what to do about the fact when I get home I had become the neighborhood babysitter later and later into the evening. When my kids had lessons of some kind or a game we needed to go to the other parents didn't seem to be around for their kids to go home to. Yes I did like the fact I knew where my kids were and what was going on, however it was becoming a challenge for us to be a family. I sat there and wrote some rules. (1.) all kids that did not belong to me would be going home at 6 PM, or when we needed to leave. (2.) Homework needed to be completed by 8:30 PM
(3.) Sundays were family days and no-one was going with us or going to be at our home...only family. These were the only rules. My one child, the one most likely to protest these rules went to her room to think them over. Soon she returned and said, "Mom we need to talk about these rules." I told her fine, but they probably wouldn't change. She then preceeded to state her case. She did not believe that 6 PM was early enough for everyone to leave. She just didn't believe she could get everything done if people were around after 5 PM. I called the other kids in to the family room and told them what she had proposed. They agreed that 5 PM was better than 6. We did change that one rule. When she became an adult I asked her why she wanted the time change. To my surprise it was a relief to her to not have others at our home so many hours each day. She didn't have to ask or tell people she didn't want to play any more because she had homework, but Mom got to send everyone home and then she was the "bad guy." We did allow one little boy to spend more time with us since we were more of a family to him than his own. When he graduated from high school he thanked me for being such a good parent to him.
All for today. Good night.