On the way home from picking up SS5 today, SO was telling him how when we move he will have so much more room and he will have an entire floor of the house that he can run around all the time and do whatever he wants. I told SO to watch what and how he says things because there will be rules and there will be times that I will expect them not to run around and I will expect their toys to be put away and their school work to be done before any play is done and so on and so forth. I also told him that a 5 year brain interprets things differently then his. I told him that when he is the one who is home all day with them, cleaning up after them, feeding them, diciplining them, and fixing things they break... that he will regret telling him that he can do whatever he wants just because there is room for it. He is going to get sick of him running wild whenever he wants, playing light sabers in the house and putting holes in the walls, and whatever else a young child will do when they have no rules. He then turned to me and goes "you must have had some really strict parents." It made me mad because he KNOWS I did not have strict parents and because I really don't think that having ground rules that EVERYONE follows is strict. I told him that I never once was grounded, never had a bed time, never had to show my parents my grades, never had to keep my room clean... but I always wished I would have. I would have loved some structure. Because I had little to no structure in my childhood, I have always known exactly how I want my children to be raised. Here are my ground rules. Tell me if I am too strict...

Dinner will be between 5:30 and 6:30 every night
Homework gets done right away after school before any play
Video games are earned and only played one hour tops three times a week
Toys are picked up before anything else is started
TV is a privlidge
No TV during dinner
If I ask you to do something you do it. Without complaint
If you ask me a question I will tell you the answer only once
After dinner snack is at 8. If you are hungry before then, then you should eat more dinner.
Bed time is 9
TV, Video games, and rough housing is over at 8
DO not talk back
You will complete age appropriate chores each week

Obviously there are some more just common ones that I think are so self explanitory that I didn't list them. I do not think that having expectaions of children means I am too strict. I wish I had structure in my childhood so I am trying my best to provide that for my child.