My cardinal rule of parenting (other than love the heck outta your babies) is “Never make a threat or a promise you don’t intend to keep.”
This means that I work very hard at holding my tongue when I’m angry before I ground someone for a week or take away the xBox for 5 months.
Because once I say it, I hold to it, no matter how hard it is.
So, there’s a lotta tongue biting around here.
However, I believe it is just as important to keep your promises to your kids.
They need to know that they can count on you to do what you say you will do.
So, imagine my moment of panic when Monkey in the Middle reminded me two days before school started that, back in late June when school first got out, I promised to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese before school started again in the fall.
As soon as he said it, I remembered saying it, and in this house, a promise is a promise.
So, on Labor Day, Real Man and I loaded those monkeys up in the car and headed out to Chuck E. Cheese.
And. We. Had. Fun.
Like, serious fun.
I say it twice because CEC is not known for being fun for parents.
For kids, yes.
For parents, it’s more like a nuclear stress test.
This time, not so bad.
Not everyone was totally into it…
But most of us were.
This was one promise I was happy to keep.
