Well it's school holidays here.
That means at any one time I will have double the usual amount of people in my house.
Last night instead of 3 kids I had six kids.
The boys watched DVDs in the lounge and the girls were watching DVDs in the bedroom.
When they all joined together for the inevitable five minutes of wrestling, the youngest one got hurt.
But that's what happens to a little girl when she has three big brothers.
So how do you cope with six kids in the house at once, I hear you say? Well, I let everyone know in advance what is expected of them.
When kids come to my house they need to abide by my rules.
Period.
One boy turned up at my house with seven or eight DVDs, most of which were rated "restricted" or MA15+.
Instead of growling at him, I simply said to him, "Ryan, why don't you bring the DVDs here to me and I'll tell you which ones are suitable for watching here tonight".
I wasn't accusing him of doing anything wrong.
I was simply instructing him on the standards for my household.
We looked through the pile of DVDs together, and decided that all but two were highly unsuitable.
So Ryan put the not so good DVDs away and the boys settled on watching something more appropriate.
It was very easy.
By sitting down and talking with the friends of my boys, I was empowering them to make good choices next time.
I explained to them the "why" behind my rules and they were happy enough.
When you tell kids or teenagers why you are imposing rules, they will be more likely to abide by them.
Take the time to talk to your kids about rules and they will respect you for it.
Boss them around without explaining things and you will have a hard job with them.
Kids deserve to be treated with the utmost respect, just as adults do.
Next time you want to give a rule or a boundary to your child, make sure they understand why in advance.
Then you will have happy children and your job will be much easier.