Its OK to be a Fun Mum

Its just possible that as parents we become too staid

Possible too boring

Its no wonder our children prefer to hang around their friends houses

If the alternative is being embarrassed in their own home

What child wants to invite their friends around

When the first thing you will say to their guest is

"Now these are the ground rules!!!"


Not for one minute am I suggesting we don't need Ground Rules. They are an absolute necessity to a calm and happy home
All I am saying is for our children to feel comfortable in their home inviting their friends, then maybe we can afford to be slightly more flexible.

My son invited a friend to stay over this weekend, which is fine with me, its only school nights I don't allow sleep overs, before his friend arrived I had an informal chat with my son, telling him that I wanted him to have a laugh this weekend but not at a price I couldn't take.

I was so proud because the first thing my son said was "Its okay Mum I already told him not to use bad language!" Bless him, I never even had that on my list, my son just knows that as I don't use bad language myself, i would be uncomfortable hearing it in my home by young teens.

I explained to my son, that for this one night I personally don't care if they stay awake the whole night, as long as they don't disturb me !!!!! Also that they don't expect me to creep around letting them sleep all day tomorrow !!!

Any drinks, snacks etc they take up to my sons room, come back down again, my pet hate is finding dirty dishes hidden under my boys beds Grrrrr !!!

I asked that they don't exclude Daniel unless they ask me to discreetly keep him out of their way for a break, I have no complaints at all, far from it, Daniel has been allowed to join in with them, even to the point of riding their bike to the field for a football game, miraculously they even all came back happy !!!!!!

In return I assured Thomas that if anything occurred I was not happy with, he had my promise that I would take him to one side and explain the problem not debate the issue in front of his friend, causing embarrassment to both of them

So how has it gone ?????

Well actually its been great, Thomas seems to pick some very respectful and polite friends, of which I am very grateful, we even had fun as a group, i even had a play boxing match with Thomas, naturally I won............ok so actually I lost but that was probably as I was laughing far too much at the ridiculous image I must have made trying to jump around and stay on my feet. Can I stress we do only do "air boxing" no punches actually hit home. its more a competition of who can look the silliest and yes I did win that round !!!!!

The result is that Thomas' friend is enjoying himself and told Thomas that his mum is "cool!!!" Yep thats me, there is actually someone who thinks I'm cool, my son did of course put him right saying "She's not cool, she's crazy !!!!"

It makes such a difference if you can join in with your children and their friends, your children will also love you for it, my 14 year old has already given me several hugs today and said thanks for a great weekend

This weekend we have come full circle back to that great word "Respect" I respected my son and his need to have friends over, to relax, be himself, not to be uptight or anxious, my reward is that my son and his friend have both respected me and been well behaved and polite young men