Your top 3 'NON-NEGOTIABLE' family rules.

[Saturn74]

Children: two boys aged 10 and 8.
Our top three, non-negotiable rules are:
1: No hitting, swearing, mimicking or name calling.
2: No speaking whilst you have food in your mouth.
3: Put all dirty clothes and wet towels in the laundry basket.

What are your top three?

[charliecat]

Girls 6 and 9

1. No dirty Clothes in the Bedroom.
2. Do ask your told first time.
3. ...hmm cant think of 3...we try to do the No name calling screaming, hitting each other thing but TBH, it doesnt happen. they clobber each other at least once a day

[expatinscotland]

1. No swearing or hitting
2. No shoes in the house - it's all carpet but the kitchen and bath
3. Food ONLY at the table.

[KBear]

girl 7 boy 5

1. No name-calling (hate it, esp "stupid" for some reason!).

1. Once you're in bed, you're in bed and that is IT. No up and down the stairs seventeen times.

1. Toys in living room cleared up at the end of the day.

[hunkermunker]

1. No putting cassette tapes in the DVD recorder
2. No biting your brother's feet
3. No kicking the back of my seat when I'm driving

[hunkermunker]

Ah, boys 2.7yo and 10mo

[pointydog]

No mimicking, humphrey!

That would rule out one of our favourite past times

[ilovecaboose]

1. BEdtime means bedtime, no getting out of room.
2. No hitting.
3. No going into kitchen (and therefore getting into bathroom) without an adult.

Ds aged 2.

There are others but these are the most important ones.

[CAMisole]

1. Kiss and cuddle every day
2. Have breakfast, lunch and supper
3. Laugh a lot

[Saturn74]

pointydog!

In our house the mimicking rule came about because DS2 is extremely dyslexic, and DS1 would merrily mimic him trying to read when riled.

General taking the piss is actively encouraged however; good for strengthening the character!

[nutcracker]

Not sure we have any, nevermind 3.

Ok let me think......

1. Bedtime means sleep DO NOT shout me unless you are ill.
   
   
2. No swearing
   
   
3. If it's yours then you pick it up, otherwise it gets the bin bag treatment.

[rosie79]

My DS is 3. I had to think about this for a while as most things are negotiable with him! The rules at the moment are:

1. Take bowl or plate back to kitchen when you've finished eating.
2. No touching the CDs.

3.No turning the computer off.

I'd only call the first one non-negotiable though, no. 2 and 3 will not last forever as they only apply to him at this age, so at some stage they will become obsolete and replaced by others no doubt!

[saggarmakersbottomknocker]

Mine are older so at the moment they are

Stay in school
No drugs
Don't do anything that's illegal or annoys the neighbours......

[rosie79]

CAMisole - Those are the best non-negotiable rules!!

They are a given in my house too (and I guess in most posters)...good that you mentioned the most important things for children when they are growing up as being rules!

[FrannyandZooey]

Hmm

I can't actually think of anything that is totally non negotiable

Hmm

Ah

no hitting
no coming downstairs after bedtime
no standing up on the chair at the dinner table

[fullmoonfiend]

we introduced 10 golden rules a couple of weeks ago for everyone which we agreed as a family. If a rule is broken person gets a black mark. Person with the fewest black marks at the end of the week gets to choose family activity.

Our top 3 are no hitting, no name-calling or bad words and no shouting.
(I got to choose today's activity which was swimming - with dh taking them while I played on MN )

[tribpot]

My mum has 10 non-negotiable rules for when her grandchildren visit. The first is "no waking granny before 8 a.m.". Looking forward to ds' first overnighter there without us

[ghosty]

No hitting, for any reason, at any time
No getting angry with anyone who is trying to HELP you
No waking me up at the crack of sparrow's fart just because YOU are awake and therefore you feel the whole world should wake with you (been working on that for 6 years, 11 months, 27 days, 4 hours and 22 minutes! )

[Twiglett]

um

1. no bugging me
2. no bugging me or your father
3. and most important don't bug me

[Mercy]

Why are these 'family' rules all aimed at the children?

I like CAMisoles rules though.

[Twiglett]

would it be because adults tend to come with the social niceties and modes of behaviour already developed?

[edam]

1. Don't hurt the cat. No, that means DON'T chase after her when she's trying to get away.

1. No hitting anything that can be broken eg glass door/tv screen.

1. When you are hiding from mummy, you have to giggle (rule developed after he hid so well I was convinced he'd got out of the house, somehow).

[juuule]

Non-negotiable rules...hmmmm...let me think.......ermmmm........can't think of anything at the moment.....will call back later....

[Mercy]

Up to a point.

But I think if you are going to have certain rules then they should apply to all memebers of the family. There are several examples of rules on this thread which I know I don't follow of all of the time, neither does dh and therefore I can't expect my children to follow them all of the time.