You want to use your stick? Or should I get mine?

I am part of a very special group of friends. We love being together whenever possible. Almost all of us have kids at home all day long, so when we get together during the day there is a significant increase in the noise level. 

As our kids get older, finishing a sentence - or sometimes even a whole conversation - is getting easier. But there are days when we are all taking our turns disappearing from the room to beat our children. 

I'm kidding about beating our children. 

But we do vanish regularly to have a word with this one, or to remove that one from a situation, or to exact some type of punishment for a certain unacceptable behavior. Sometimes, we have to disappear completely and go all the way home with a screaming child in tow. And no one looks twice. No one raises an eyebrow or tells us to take it easy or questions anyone's parenting decisions. We just shift over and start monitoring an extra kid or two while one of us is having to be the enforcer. And every now and then we play the enforcer with each other's kids. 

The result? Well, here's an example: I was able to, in good conscience, leave one babysitter at my house with seven of these kids one day, knowing they'd not give her any trouble at all and almost nothing in my house would be broken when I returned. 

Lately, I've been thinking about how grateful I am to be surrounded by families who have the same expectations of behavior that we have, and I brag a bit about it when someone compliments my kids. I use it a a chance to talk about how blessed we are to be a part of a group of people who help us keep them in line. 

Yesterday, a friend of mine tweeted a quote from Rick Warren (is "re-tweeted" an accepted verb yet?) that said: "In the poorest slums on earth I've learned that gangs & violence are not created by poverty but by the absence of fathers." 

Reading that, I was filled with gratitude that not only do these kids have moms who will keep them in line, but every single one of them has a dad who expects great things from them, and who also is completely devoted to their mom. And while we're not perfect, we are getting to see the benefits of doing this part of our life according to God's plan. When his plan gets broken and our kids grow up without loving parents who are going to hold them accountable to a standard of acceptable behavior, then our kids end up broken.