The BRO Code for Moms

Tell them you love them every day, even when they roll their eyes.

Especially then. The eye-roll is how it goes in.

Hold the line.

Kids push on fences to see if they are real. Be a real fence.

Eat dinner together as often as you can.

Paper plates count. Cereal counts. The table is the point.

Teach please, thank you and sorry, and teach them to mean all three.

Let them be bored.

Boredom is where forts, inventions and surprisingly good ideas come from.

Take care of yourself.

You cannot pour from an empty cup, and you have been running on a thimble since February.

Laugh at the chaos.

Somewhere, a future you is telling this story at a party and it is hilarious.

Let Dad do it his way.

The sandwich is cut wrong. The kid is fed. Everyone wins.

Teach them to make their bed.

Win the first battle of the day and the rest look smaller.

Keep a few family traditions, even silly ones.

Pancakes shaped like their initials will outlast every toy.

Ask other moms for help.

The village did not disappear. It just needs a text.

Teach chores, not just rules.

A twelve-year-old can do laundry. Their future roommates thank you in advance.

Praise the effort more than the result.

"You worked hard on that" builds a kid who keeps working.

Get down to their eye level when it matters.

Don't do for them what they can do for themselves.

Every shoe you tie for a nine-year-old is a lesson you did not teach.

Don't compare your kids to the ones on the internet.

Those kids have lighting. And a team.

Don't negotiate with a toddler.

You will lose. They have more time and no shame.

Don't make idle threats.

"I will turn this car around" only works if you have done it once.

Don't save it all for "wait till your father gets home."

Handle it now. He would like to walk in to hugs, not a courtroom.

Don't talk badly about their dad in front of them.

Even when he did it wrong. Especially then.

Don't be the chauffeur, chef and maid without a thank-you.

Gratitude is a habit. Train it.

Don't solve every friendship problem for them.

Coach from the sideline. Let them play the game.

Don't feel guilty for saying no.

"No" today is a gift to the adult they will be.

Don't hover.

A scraped knee is tuition, and the lesson is cheap at that price.

Don't give up the dinner table to the phones.

The phones can sit in a basket. They will survive. So will you.

Don't try to be every mom at once.

You do not have to be the crafty one, the fitness one and the gourmet one. Be theirs.

Don't forget to tell them stories about when you were little.

Proof that you, too, once refused to wear a coat.