I was wondering from an incident tonight & another thread as well - do you allow your kids to tell you the rules?? By this I mean, rules that they already know, if you disobey them, are the kids allowed to tell you that you have?

For example, this evening Aaron said "shut up" to me. Now in our house we never ever say shut up in a serious sense, just a joking way & this is how he said it tonight. Alexzander repeated it & I told him it's not a nice thing to say & daddy shouldn't say it either. I then told him that he should go & tell daddy it's not a nice thing to say, which he did & daddy apologised for saying it. Stupidly I said the same thing not long after (we were having a few jokes at the time). I then said to Zander, "uh oh mummy said something naughty so what should you say?" and he told me it's not a nice thing to say & I apologised.

He also on a regular basis tells people not to talk with food in their mouths, his aunty, pop & even friends of ours. Ok so it's a bit embarrassing for the person, but it shows to me he knows his manners & is learning that they apply to everyone not just him. Also I think it's good for him to see us make mistakes & apologise for them rather than the rules not applying to us IYKWIM.