The Unspoken Rules

Within every family you will find that there are unspoken rules, that you most likely learned from experience without it ever having to be explained to you.  Yesterday I was watching my niece Katelyn who will be three in July, and I picked up on some things that she has clearly learned from her own experiences at home.  I had left the light on in the bedroom and she told me that I needed to turn it off.  She had to learn it from somewhere so her parents, Emily and Brandon, probably tell her or each other not to leave the light on.  Also I noticed that after every time we got something out and she was done playing with it she would put it all away.  I know her mother Emily loves to organize and have things clean so I'm sure she has told her to clean up many times.  From another time when we were at their house Brandon had gotten upset with her about something and Katelyn went to the corner and was just standing there looking down.  When her dad noticed he told her that she wasn't in trouble and didn't need to stand in the corner.  I realized myself without having to be told that that was the way Emily and Brandon chose to discipline her, and Katelyn recognizing her dad was upset, went there without having to be told.  I find it fascinating that she is only three yet she can pick up on these rules, which is why I think so many of us may find it hard to recognize our family's rules.  To us it is normal and that is just what you do,  we have grown up with those rules, but to anyone else who isn't part of your family, they can usually pick up on them pretty quickly.