When a parent behaves childishly...

The other day we had to switch the kids' rooms around a bit.  (Which is no surprise to anybody who really knows us, as we are always changing up the kids' rooms;)   I'll spare you the details, but in short- Abby no longer wanted to sleep alone downstairs so we needed to make room for her upstairs with the rest of us.    As it currently sits - (and I won't even pretend to say this is the last shake up) Abby and Jessica now share a large bedroom, while Nate and Sam share the smaller one.   

The kids instantly realized this meant Boys vs Girls in the battle of the rooms.

Within hours of getting his new room, Sam felt it necessary to stake his claim and make it very clear to the whole family that no girls are aloud into his room.   

Like...EVER!

(That's what the picture of the girl in a circle with a line through it is supposed to mean;)

                   

And if...IF by some chance you are a girl, and if for some reason you think you should be able to enter his room - then you must give him 1 of the 2 code words that he has carefully chosen.  And I'm not kidding - it's serious business this whole boys room/ girls room stuff!

    Abby - not wanting to be on the receiving end only,  came home from school and slapped on her door her own little sign of retaliation:

I love how she made a point of clarifying that GIRLS can come in for FREE, as if there was some sort of toll that would other wise have to be paid.

Oh wait - there is!!!

It has actually gotten to that point!

Several times I have walked by the kids' rooms to see Abby, Sam and Jess gathered in the hallway seriously discussing the "terms" that must be met in order for them to enter the others room.    Some of the terms involved - giving away pocession of certain toys,  doing a certain some one's chores, promising not to touch certain toys, and yes...offering up certain ludicrous amounts of money (that let's be honest - none of them really have.)

All to gain permission to simply ENTER!

At first, I thought it was wise of me to let them establish a space of their own, and in truth - it was kinda cute to watch them form these little teams together.  (I personally have very fond memories of  teaming up with my one sister against my other two siblings:)   However, I'm beginning to wonder if we will ever go back to the friendly open door atmosphere we once had, and I don't necessarily like the fact that they are excluding each other based on all these silly terms and conditions.  Can you imagine if they treated their peers at school like this?  

So I did what any parent in my position would do.    I slapped on a sign of my own!

I think I was initially trying to teach them a valuable life lesson...you know... about how important it is that we never discriminate and exclude others...etc.

Then again....perhaps I just really needed my own little break from it all!!;)

At any rate, tonight as the kids were getting ready for bed- they all wanted to come in my room to visit, but of course, there was this silly little rule preventing them from being able to.   I told them that I'd take my sign down if they took their signs down as well,  which they all agreed to do, (though Sam was a bit hesitant).   I'm just going to go ahead and chalk this one up to a Lesson Learned;)

And POOF!   Just like that I'm a good mom again!