Boy/Girl Night

I have decided that we are going to start having what we call "Boy/Girl Night" in our family. On the 2nd Saturday of every month Hannah and I will have a sleepover in our bedroom. We'll curl up in bed and watch a movie and talk about whatever she wants to talk about. While we're doing that the boys will be doing whatever they want to do. The plan for tonight is for Jake and Lincoln to play video games and sleep in the living room.

My hope is that it creates a great bonding experience for us between Lincoln and I and the kids but more importantly it keeps an open line of communication between us. I want to make sure that as the kids get older they're comfortable coming to us to discuss anything they want to discuss. I'm sure that every generation of parenting is daunting to the parents involved but it seems to me that as time goes on children grow up faster and faster. When you're hearing stories about elementary aged kids getting into trouble on the school bus for performing sex acts on each other I guess it's never too soon to make sure you're able to communicate with your children on ANY topic.

When my children get a little older I plan to sit them down and tell them exactly what my mother told me in junior high. I don't remember her exact words but basically she told me that I needed to know that I could tell her and Dad anything and that it was important that I communicate with them. Essentially she said that they knew that I might be out doing things that they didn't necessarily approve of but that it was better if they knew about it because in the case that anything went wrong they would be able to get any help necessary in a timely fashion. I don't know exactly what she had in mind when she said that but I always took it to mean that teenagers experiment with situations that may or may not turn out badly. I was a pretty good kid (other than being a real brat every now and then ). I didn't drink when I was in high school. I don't think I actually drank alcohol until the summer before I left for college. They knew I drank in college. I didn't smoke cigarettes and I never did drugs. I didn't even experiment with pot which is pretty much a college staple. I think the fact that I didn't feel the need to do those things to rebel against my parents really helped me get through life. I'm hoping to have that sort of communication with our kids as well.