What Are Your Rules?

Yesterday, my family had a good-natured conversation about the three rules our son had while growing up. These rules were to help him get through primary school without spending most of it in timeout. They worked then, and he came extremely close to admitting they continue to help make him successful now.

The news cycle perpetually features influential people in trouble for choosing their actions poorly. When I read about them, I can nearly always say, “he didn’t learn his rules.” It is too late for many, but I thought I would share his three rules because even grown-ups can put these to good use.

Each morning before we dropped our son off at school, we asked, “What are your rules?”

The correct answer:

• Keep my mouth closed.
• Do what the teacher says.*
• Keep my hands to myself.

*  Substitute babysitter, boss, grown-up, parents, etc., depending on the situation.

We occasionally reminded him that grown-ups also follow these rules if they want to stay out of trouble. I could have saved myself a lot of trouble over the years if I better remembered them myself, especially that one about keeping my mouth closed. I also believe that self-help books are highly derivative of these findings.

Maybe I should figure out how to get the royalties.