Jumping on Beds & Other Such Naughtiness

[{sarah}]

I've had several conversations on this sort of topic with Aaron & wondered what everyone else thinks.... When I was growing up there were a lot of things that other kids got into trouble over & we didn't. Just silly little things that mum often joined us in doing that Aaron would have gotten in trouble for let alone his mum joining in. So now with Zander I don't have an issue with these things and Aaron is mostly in my way of thinking (after some persuasion ). So my question is, what do you think of these? Will your kids be allowed to do them or will it be a no-no in your house? Also are there any others you can think of that yo got away with, but your friends didn't?

* Jumping on beds - we were forever diving between beds when two of us shared a room. When we were in Qld just recently we put all the chair cushions on the floor & took turns diving on them with Zander (this was me, Aaron (reluctantly) and my younger sister).

* Blowing bubbles in milk - this is definitely one that mum joined in on hehe!! We were always politely when drinking properly, a friend that I've had since primary school still remembers my mum's "requests" for her to drinking nicely LOL! But when it came to bubble blowing she just didn't care. Zander loves doing it now, mum joins but MIL tells him to stop it.

* Water fights in the house - I remember splashing mum in the kitchen only to be carried off & thrown in a cold shower fully clothed There was obviously times when we knew not to push it, but we'd quite often be running round the house with water pistols with mum hot on our tails LOL! She'd even set it up & find out when dad would be getting home from work so we could ambush him! We always had carpet in the house too. As well as that there'd be powder fights too

* Days off school - if we wanted a day off school we could, within reason of course. We didn't have to be sick & mum would let us have a day off every now & then. The only condition was that we had to stay home for the day & not go to the shops or anything like that. We never had to fake being sick like our friends did to have the day off. I'd say it would have been lucky to be once a term for me & when I was in Year 12 I didn't have a single day off.

[Rouge]

I encourage milk blowing and days off school... I think I'd have to let go of the anal annie in me to do the water fight thing but I probably could And as for the bed thing, I have a morbid fear of jumping on beds for a few reasons, I had an incident with a plank breaking... could have been waaaaaaay worse than it was and just the safety aspect not for any other...

As for stuff I got away with um no, definitely not. I was probably that kid who wasn't allowed to do anything LOL!

*hugs*
Cailin

[Liz]

Hehe - I don't think we'll be too strict on those sort of things. My only worry is.. how do you teach him not to do it at other people's places??

Tallon will no doubt (NO doubt) pick up DH's table manners... which, ok.. I can handle at home.. but he's gonna have to learn 2 sets of manners! LOL. Coz he can't pick up his plate and lick it when we're out!!

Blowing bubbles - only in milkshakes! hehehe. Same with slurping the bottom of a milkshake - it's not a milkshake without it!! LOL

Umm... school - nup - only if he's sick I think. Otherwise he'll want days off work too when he's older.. and real life doesn't work like that. hehehe.

Waterfights - only outside - but with the drought? dunno. Bit of a waste. Well.. the way we had waterfights would be a waste anyway. LOL.

[{sarah}]

Liz I don't have days off work unless I'm dying, in year 11 and 12 I had one day off over the two years & that was because of tonsilitis. So it doesn't necessarily mean they'd do it all the time

Cai yikes I hadn't thought about the bed breaking! I guess you do have a point there. Hmmm might have to rethink that one As for being anal annie, you can probably do water fights in the bathroom LOL!

[Liz]

Liz I don't have days off work unless I'm dying, in year 11 and 12 I had one day off over the two years & that was because of tonsilitis. So it doesn't necessarily mean they'd do it all the time

I would! LOL.

Beds - I think they're different now too. We had dodgy springy beds (great for the bounce) but always got wrecked by the jumping. I wouldn't think a slat bed would be as much fun would it?? heheh

[Trillian]

Hmm, you raise some very valid points Sarah LOL. When we were kids we jumped on beds, had waterfights (but they were banished to outside), blew milk bubbles but we had to be bleeding from the eyes before we were allowed to stay home from school though.

I have noticed with Mum though that she has mellowed ALOT and my 12 yo brother has frequent days off school (bordering on too many really) and lets him get away with things we didn't.

As for my kids, well they jump on beds (a little kid will hardly do damage to a bed - only themselves LOL) and if they fall off they get up and go again. I haven't taught them to blow milk bubles cause my kids are extroardinarily clumsy when it comes to drinks. And I admit I am strict on going to school though.

The water fights are a differnt story altogether LOL - we don't have any water for it but when it does rain, we encourage the kids to jump in muddy puddles and muck around.

[Tracey]

Jumping on beds happens here especially in mornings when trying to wake up Dad so we can go somewhere! We did jumping on Mum & Dads bed as kids too...

Slurping & blowing bubbles in drinks is Ok, until I am sick of the noise too like Shannon, it's fine but when it's been too long it's been too long & they will get a look!!!

Water fights outside (prior to drought) as we have floor boards & too slippery, although we do have bubble blowing inside which Indah loves!!!

We used to be able to bring injured & stray pets home & I will happily allow the kids to do this as I love animals!!!

We were allowed days off school (not just for faking sickies) my Dad used to work away 2 nights a month & we would take it in turns going with him, but I went the most coz I loved it more, I am so close with my Dad! Also Mum would let us have a day off & we'd go out for lunch & do girly things together! (I hated school)

I want to be a fun Mum, I know I was shocked when I went to friends places & they had no posters on walls, nothing on walls throughout the whole house plastic on the lounge suite & everyone was proper too uncomfy for me!

Dh generally eats with his hands & so do the girls usually, My Parents dislike it but DH's family encourage it...

They know what they can do at home & not else where!!! (Well Maddy does!)

[Fi]

Yep - we are a house of kids here too. I dont like thewater fight inside thing - purely from a safety tiles point of view, and I dont really agree with the school thing either.
My mum always used to say - kids that stay home work, so if we really weren't that sick, we ended up doing some housework. Obviously if we were really sick we were in bed

[Antheia]

I used to jump on my bed when i was a kid but would get into trouble. In the end it did break!

Never had water fights or anything. I was an only child so mostly played by myself.

Wasn't allowed off school unless i was sick or very tired, as i was anaemic for a while there.

I don't think i will allow that stuff. Except for the days off school if they are tired/sick. Water fights would just get too messy with the amount of furniture we have.

[Liz]

What about swinging on the clothesline? That ad on TV always cracked me up with the dad swinging on it and breaking it. We used to swing around on ours all the time! It's a little lopsided now - but has been up for over 30 years!

[Trillian]

Oh yeah! we used to do that all the time. We had this huge bird aviary right near the clothes line and we would climb on top of the aviary and jump from it to the clothes line! the kids who lived next door to us, their parents were a bit more uptight and they had a similar set up with the aviary, and one day we were doing over at their place and the clothes line did bend LMAO right down to the ground too!. I got banned from their place for 2 weeks "because I was a bad influence on her children" She was a mum who thought butter wouldn't melt in her kids mouths, but they were the ones who taught us!

[Trish]

OK jumping on beds would have gotten our legs broken. I don't let my kids jump on beds. They are for sleeping in.

Blowing bubbles, well, only in a milkshake and not all of the time. No slurping though.

Water fights, sure, there were plenty. Outside. We often had hard floors, and they really do get slippery when wet. At out house now we have ceramic tiles and they are so slippery when just mopping so I'd hate to have huge puddles on it. Outside is fine though.

I used to fake illness to get off school, although my younger brother could just sook for it and get it off. My kids to get days off even when they are well. With Joel I figure if he really doesn't want to go either I keep him home where I know he is or he wag's, so what's the better option.

Don't get me wrong there was plenty of love and fun in the house and it was never unusal to have the music blaring with mum dancing with us around the house. We do the same with our kids.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

My parents were very strict about all of those, save the sick days! I don't approve of jumping on beds because it destroys the mattress and the wooden slats (my sister broke the slats under her bed jumping on the bed) and if it's expensive to repair then it's not fun to break. Same with shoes on sofas - I'm less anal about putting feet on sofas than my parents are, but not with shoes/slippers on: clean feet only. I wouldn't approve swinging on the clothes line: I never even thought of doing that when I was little (would have been killed!)

Blowing bubbles, of course we'll be doing that! That's fun - even if it was banned for no good reason when I was growing up. Water fights... we had them outside if the weather was OK; I must admit as the water could go in the electrics I wouldn't like them in the kitchen (we have an open kitchen/lounge and the giant TV is quite close to the kitchen area), but the bathroom would be fine.

I'm actually going to be a lot stricter on sick days than my mother was: if my child wants a day off then we'll find out why and part of the day will be used for home study. If it's because homework hasn't been done I'll want to know why it hasn't been done before they can take the day off to do it.

I really love having the music on and dancing with Liebling - we do it already and I don't want that to stop! I had to do that alone when I was little so want to join in with Liebling as much as I can. I'd say I would want to put fun and making happy memories above housework... my main memory of my mum from when I was 6ish was her telling us to tidy thing s so she could vacuum!

[christy]

This is great!!!

Jumping on beds - fully endorsed in this house if you don't jump on the bed, there must be something wrong with you (or you're too tall & hit the ceiling fan).

Blowing in the milk - why not??

Water fights - as long as you help in the towel dragging of Matilda around the house afterwards... (after a water fight we put Matilda on a towel & drag her around to mop up any water spilt)

Days off School - hmmm.... we'll see when the time comes what Matilda is like, but I'm sure we'll let her chuck a sickie now & then

Clotheslines - hmmmm I think DH has already started this with her.

Running in the house - well... she doesn't walk.

[Fi]

Hahaha Christy Love it.
Totally in for the clothesline thing. We all did it! At themoment we have a tilt line, soI'm hoping we have a circular one next time.

We play ball sports inside too. We had a very long hallway in the housewe grew up in, and all 4 kids used to play cricket in it...... With a soft ball of course Shane was playing with a tennis ball and a squash racquet inside only 3 days ago!!

I should also mention that I have a nasty scar above my eyebrow fromwhere I split my head open bouncing on the bed as a child. Wont stop me letting Jenna bounce, but I do try to keep an eye on her. Our beds as kids were great - it was a mattress on top of a metal springy mesh thing. OMG - you should have seen how high we got on that one!

When I was about 16 I broke the floorboards under my parents bed. I ran intotheir room and jumped onto the end of the bed - and one castor went through the floor boards!!!!! I dont remember mum and dad being angry with me, so thats a great thing.

Be a kid with your kid - it certainly keeps you younger.

[{sarah}]

Oooooh clothesline, I forgot about that one

And running in the house is a must LOL, Zander doesn't know how to walk LOL!

Christy I like the towel dragging idea!! We haven't had a proper water fight with Zander yet, but I think we'll be using that one. He already knows how to get daddy - he has his spray bottle in the bath & shouts out "come here daddy" and aims at the door waiting for him to come in ROFL! It was funny the first time cos Aaron had no clue what was coming.

[*Rae*]

Yeah - fun thread Sarah!!!

Bed jumping - no way! We were never allowed (although that never stopped us) and i certainly won't be encouraging it.

Bubble blowing - never did it! And if my kids occasionally do it i don't think it'll bother me.

Water fights - NEVER in the house!!! I'd have to do all the cleaning up.

Days off school - we were sometimes allowed our 'mental health days' and i'll certainly continue that one

Running in the house - hmmm - right now while Ella is small it's no probs but when i have two big girls running about i'll prob send them outside.

Swinging on clothesline - i was always too short so never did it. And we don't have one so i won't need to worry about that.

What about throwing/kicking balls in the house? - This was a big no no for us and i'll be enforcing it too.

And being allowed to play with anything that resembled a gun - my mum's biggest ban - and i know i'll be forever arguing with DH about it but i want to be a big meany about that one too. Thank goodness i have girls - maybe they won't even be interested!

[Tracey]

Crap lost my post... Basically we tied a swing to our washinmg line with rope so we could spin & swing!

Maddy skates in the house (floorboards) on her heelies...

I hated those spring beds, if you climbed under them for anything your hair would get caught!

We had an inground swimming pool & often, we'd all get thrown in fully dressed!!!