How many times have you heard the expression, "Rules are meant to be broken."?
God gave us ten rules. We break them all the time. But, what about other rules?
As a parent, I make rules. Lots of them. But, every once in a while, I'll let the kids break a rule and let them think that they pulled the wool over my eyes.
Why? Because it gives them a little thrill and because it's a little step toward independence that I can feel I can allow.
Yesterday, was going to be one of those days. I had to tell them though, that I already knew the rule had been broken--and that I let it slide. (Kids just can't resist tattling on one another!)
If you've been reading from the start of this journal, you know that we have a male/female pair of golden retrievers. Tabitha had puppies in July and we want to skip a heat before breeding her again. This means keeping the dogs apart for the next 12 days. (We're two days into this.)
Because Sunny will spend the night barking if left outside and because we want to continue to live in this neighborhood; he is banished to the garage for the duration.
Because Tabitha will spend the night barking...etc.; she has been brought into the house. She will spend a large amount of time sitting in front of the garage door. This causes Sunny to indulge in a serenade of low, mournful howling.
So, when I woke up at 6 yesterday morning and found that the boy's bedroom door was shut and subdued laughter and the whispers of boys let me know that they had Tabitha in their room, I let it slide. I wouldn't have told them I knew about it, except that the boys complained later when the girls lured Tabitha into their room.
One of the rules I broke as a teenager was no reading after lights out. I had managed to acquire a flashlight and would read under the covers after everyone else had fallen asleep. On a couple of occassions, I read until about 4 and when 7 AM came, I would say, "Ma, I don't feel good." I would inevitably be told that if I was too sick to go to school, then I was too sick to be downstairs watching TV and would have to spend the day in bed. That was fine with me!!
The kids don't know it yet, but, that's one of the rules that I'd let slide if it was only done occassionally and with a flashlight instead of the overhead light that they try to use now.
When I was in 8th grade, Grammar was THE boring subject we studied in English class. I've forgotten the teacher's name; but, not his words. "Most (published) writers break the rules of good grammar. The difference between them and you is that they KNOW the rules." Then he told our class that if we knew the rules of grammar, we would be allowed to break them once in a while. Providing, of course, that it was because of style that we were breaking them--not just laziness or sloppiness.
I have often found certain grammatical rules to be, well, stupid. If you can say, "Go!" to someone, and have the subject of the sentence implied, why can't the object of a prepositional phrase also be implied? Therefore, because I find the rule, "Never end a sentence in a prepostion." to be a silly rule, I often break it.
I admit that I've forgotten more about the rules of grammar than I remember. I doubt that I could acheive the same scores on SATs as I did 27 years ago. (Top 5% nationwide) But, then, considering that the tests have been redone in order to raise the scores that had fallen so badly, maybe I could.
Remember, SOME rules were meant to be broken.
for the border background.