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"I find myself having a really hard time lately keeping to rules with the kids. While it&amp;#039;s true that since Peter moved out, things have lightened up considerably around here, I&amp;#039;m worried that I&amp;#039;m getting too relaxed. Take last night for instance. Our nightly routine used to consist of me tucking both kids into bed after bathtime, then heading into my bedroom for a little decompressing &amp;quot;just me&amp;quot; time. Now it&amp;#039;s half an hour (or more) of sitting with David (who doesn&amp;#039;t want to sleep alone). Then after he falls asleep, I spend an hour or more with Anna (who climbs into my bed most nights) sharing about our day, laughing, giggling, and just staying up too late. Last night, I kept insisting that she stop chattering and get some sleep, finally threatening to make her sleep in her own bed. She responded by telling me that I sound like a &amp;quot;normal parent&amp;quot; and I wasn&amp;#039;t being &amp;quot;fun&amp;quot; anymore. Ouch. That bothered me, but not because I wasn&amp;#039;t being fun. I firmly believe that while it&amp;#039;s good to be buddies with your kids, you cannot be so much their buddy that you stop being their parent. I&amp;#039;ve seen some of my firm household rules sliding away, and I need to stop that process now. We used to eat a family dinner every single night at the table. Now it&amp;#039;s a night or two a week and maybe a breakfast on the weekends I have them. Some nights we sit in front of the TV to eat. Not the end of the world, but not ideal, either. And as for the new bedtime routine \u2013 well, I talk a lot about setting boundaries with Peter, but I seem to have precious few with my own kids. This is going to be a real problem as we move into the teen years if I don&amp;#039;t nip it in the bud now. How do I get firm and re-establish some parental boundaries without losing the closeness and fun and easy-going atmosphere that we now share? Readers, I need your help! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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