Rules for Small Children, or Alternatively, British WWII Propaganda Posters

We, in the House of Small, are always looking for parenting advice and tips...anything to make the daily struggle of keeping three "precocious, energetic young people" (hellions) from hurting each other or the property that is now sitting stagnant on the real estate market (HELLO?  ANYONE WANT TO BUY A HOUSE?).

Parenting experts inform is that advice for children needs to be...

• succinct, 
• easy to understand, and 
• applicable in a variety of situations.  

But what is a mother to do?  In a moment of sheer dumb luck, I have found a solution!  I know the Today show is going to be calling me at any moment.

Think of these as "sayings to live by" or "sayings to remember when you don't want the evil eye from your mother" or "sayings to revert to when your mother's head is exploding into a zillion pieces of radioactive glitter."

This first one I found as a poster at Hobby Lobby.  Because what do  you do when  you need to decorate a rather large house with 12 foot ceilings over 8,000 miles away?  Why of course, you buy lots and lots and lots of posters (all at 50% off! WHOOOOOOOP!).

It was originally for Hank's room:

This then got me wondering about the origin of the saying.  Thanks to almost two decades with my smart husband who knows a wikipedia-worth of stuff about an Western war prior to 1990, I knew the crown indicated it was most likely British, which made me think of WWII.  Indeed!  It is from the British Archives.  I'll post a link with more info at the bottom of this intriguing essay/commentary/thing-that's-keeping-me-from-doing-housework.

This is the only poster Hobby Lobby had, so this morning I got online and ordered two more.  Cause  you know, I have to have the set.  Plus there is a graceful symmetry to having three people and three posters.  I like numerology like that.  That's why I have three cats.

And the third...

I can just feel the enthusiastic response rushing forth from the attitudes of my people.

Here's some history on these posters:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7869458.stm