Will you treat other kids like your own kids?

Yep. Those bastards get just the same maltreatment as my own spawn.

I have rules in my house and everyone needs to abide by them. For kids who come over who have never been here before, I make sure I gently explain my rules if they happen to trample over them. I can’t expect that they will know what is acceptable here. If they listen and are truly sorry for having, for example, broken something then I usually won’t say anything to their parents about it. But if we have a kid/kids over who are rude and destructive and won’t listen to me they get told to either shape up or they won’t be coming back. Oh and I talk to those kids’ parents.

First of all, I will lay the ground rules for all kids in my house, and make sure that they understand my expectations. By following the rules, everything should be ok. If things are getting out of hand, I step in as soon as possible to remind them of the rules. If too late to step in and something untoward happens, I investigate without going ballistic and uncover who is at fault. If the other kids were at fault and they acknowledge that fact, I ask them to let their parents know about it as soon as they see each other. . . . parents have always felt embarassed and take responsibility thereafter. . . . I don’t end up as a bad guy to the kids nor the parents.

Yes. Once upon a time, there was no “my kids” there was ‘our kids’.

My house, my rules. I’ve often had kids over (usually tonnes of them all at once) and I make no differenciation between them. I don’t treat them all as equals (since they’re not all the same age), but I do treat them all as if they were all mine for the day. And yes, they have to remember this is always my daughter’s home, and she is obviously my favourite, but she’ll get punished if she’s the one to blame (I’ve actually been too strict with her sometimes, and I regret that, as most parents seem to be less fair when it comes to punishing).

In any case, I never had any problems, with the exception of one particular girl (aged 9 now) who always wanted special attention from me, a lot more than I could offer, especially when I had younger children to take care of. She’s also very clumsy, and always broke something whenever she came over. I mean every single time. It just got funny after a while. My daughter nicknamed her “Messycat”.

All I can say is ‘my rules are my rules’ and it doesn’t matter whether they are my own children or someone elses children. I treat them all the same.
Then they get to understand the boundaries and hopefully respect them.

Absolutely and their parents will be made aware as soon as possible of their behavior.

If they broke the furniture I would simply leave them alone with my kids. May God have mercy on their souls.

@malevolentbutticklish ha, lol

@All,excellent point!
@malevolentbutticklish You’re so generous!

I think so I would do that, but if it doesn’t happen then I’ll try and let it happen ;D

Every kid that sets foot in my house knows my rules and will suffer nearly the same consequences as my boys. There are obvious exceptions to the first time offense but more than likely the punishment will have to be modified to reflect their privileges they would have that the loss of could be used as punishment.

I ran a cub scout den for 2 years and they all had to obey the rules of my house first and foremost and a couple of them got regular time outs and other loss of privileges. I often think the parents kept the kids in my den just to have me discipline them.

GA @malevolentbutticklish

It’s not my job to discipline someone elses kids, I would just tell their parents. You can get into a lot of trouble if you start trying to parent other people’s children.

As hard as it is, I try to remember that children who are my kid’s ages are not wholly responsible for their behavior. Thier parents play a HUGE role in how these children behave. I don’t want the child to pay for the mistakes of the parents. But if your kid pisses me off sufficiently, you will be coming to my house in the middle of the night to pick up little Damien.

There has been more than one child to whom I have said, “If your parents won’t teach you these things, I will!” In that respect, I most certainly do treat other people’s children the same as my own. But I’ve never lain a hand on anyone else’s child, unless it was to bandage a booboo or tie an errant shoe lace.

Yep. People have commented on it. I had kind of adopted a couple of kids, brothers, out of one of my classes. They were over every weekend, pretty much became family. I took them, along with two of my kids, and myself, to Mo. for a small vacation. We went swimming. Later that evening, sitting on a public balcony, drink in hand, watching the sunset, this couple approached me. They specifically said they were amazed at the way I treated the kids so completely the same. They said, “If the two boys hadn’t been black we would have had no idea they weren’t yours!” :)

We don’t use punishment in our house for little mishaps, whether accidental or on purpose. After they help us clean up the mess, I would simply move them to the playroom, where nothing can be broken, or the fenced yard, where they can run and jump to their hearts content, and make sure they were well supervised.

Knowing me, I’d yell at them but never spank. Whether or not I’d blab to the parents it would depend.

I would sit them down and go over ground rules and talk about what they did wrong and say do not do it again or there will be consequences. If they do it again then ya, you have the right to punish them. This person left them in your care so as long as your not like beating them, I think it’s okay to set out consequences for inappropriate actions.

If their parents trust you enough to drop their heathens off with you and they break furniture to test boundaries, then those parents can say nothing about how you discipline the little devils in your own home, short of beating them, of course.