Sprinkles for Breakfast... And other rules worth breaking

Pick Your Battles.

That's the alternate title for this post. If there's one piece of life advice that spans across all scenarios, it's Pick Your Battles.

I like rules, I like structure. I ABC my life as much as possible.

However, trying to follow all of life's "rules" with a 4 year old is actually where they got the "square peg, round hole" analogy. It's an endless attempt at trying to make something fit that's just not meant to.

You can schedule naps and you can have regular pizza nights and your child should expect consistency with love and discipline.

But you can’t plan for the wardrobe conflicts, the naked painting, the totally developmentally-appropriate yet unexpected “let’s do this instead” moments that can throw parents into a tizzy.

But that's okay, because some rules are meant to be broken. Sometimes...

Put sprinkles on your waffles for breakfast.
Let them go in the kiddie pool with all their clothes on.
Let them use large magnets for snow shoes.
Eat milk and cookies 30 minutes before dinner.
Do a puzzle in the driveway.
Let her draw with chalk on the box you're probably going to throw out anyway.

Bonus: do all of the above, and ENJOY it.

We want our children to be kind, courageous, truthful, and obedient. We want them to know right from wrong. For those of us with A-type personalities who like to put everything in alphabetical order, I think those desires sometimes overshadow the fact that our children should also have fun -- especially while they're learning -- and once in a while, that fun should go against the grain.