Sometimes, it’s okay to break the rules with your kids.

On the Sunday after Christmas, Grace took a long nap at 4 in the afternoon. That meant she slept until 6, and she was not ready to go to sleep at 8. This part was totally my fault.

We are flexible parents. We are strict when it’s called for, but the rest of the time, not so much.

Many issues are just not worth fighting over, including bedtime when you’ve allowed the child to take a very late nap.  We were decidedly not going to force her to lie in her bed when she wasn’t tired. It didn’t make any sense.

So the three of us watched The Sound of Music. As it was coming on at 7, I wondered aloud if we should eat dinner. Grace said she was hungry, and Joe said he could eat, so we set up the coffee table with a living room picnic.

The fare? Leftover appetizers from Christmas Day – Asiago cheese dip, olive cream cheese dip, buffalo chicken dip, kielbasa dip, and lots of Club crackers. And pop.

The whole meal was deliciously wrong, and it was delightful.

We aren’t creating any habits.

We don’t normally eat dinner in the living room.

We don’t usually watch tv while we’re eating.

We usually sit at the table in the dining room and eat dinner together.

But we didn’t that day.

Want to know something?

It worked for us, and we all enjoyed it.

Happily submitted to Works for Me Wednesday