I’m talking about the absolute best time of year for any parent of small children. It’s time for my mother to come for another visit. Hallelujah and pass the gravy!

 I know people who dread the day their mother or mother-in-law comes to visit, but not in this house. In the O’Bryant household everybody, including my husband, can tell you how many days remain until Shuggie’s next visit.

 When Shuggie visits, my husband and I are no longer outnumbered by our children and life in general seems more manageable. All of the girls adore the extra attention, there is more time for reading books, going on walks and playing at the park when Mommy knows she’ll have two extra hands when it comes time for dinner, bath time and bedtime.

 But, before she comes back this time, I think we need to lay some ground rules. My mother and my girls are crazy about each other, and on occasion their grandmother/granddaughter relationship begins to closely resemble that of a preschool class with no teacher. My girls know that there is very little Shuggie will deny them, and my mother finds my girls so charming and hilarious that as long as their behavior is entertaining it’s almost always permissible. So Shuggie, here are the ground rules for the next visit:

•Bedtime is at 7:30 p.m. The girls are allowed to pick out one book to read before bedtime. This does not mean that you can read the same book repeatedly for an hour. On a past visit I walked into Aubrey and Emma’s bedroom 45 minutes after I had left them with Shuggie to read a book, to see what the hold up was.

“Girls,” I said, looking my mother in the eye, “I said one book.”

“We only read one book, Momma.” Aubrey said quite matter-of-factly.

  I rolled my eyes and continued to stare Shuggie down.

“What?” She asked. “We did only read one book…we just read it a few times.”

Way to work the loophole there, Shuggie.

• No tap dancing on the hardwood floor. What happened to the woman who would have lost her mind if I had tried to skate, tap dance, or skateboard on her hardwood floors? My mother now claps along and cheers as Aubrey and Emma tap dance on my floors.

• I’m not coaster crazy. Most of our furniture is second hand or really old, but could we at least put glasses full of liquid on a flat surface? On one of Shuggie’s summer visits, she spent over an hour spraying my furniture with upholstery cleaner and scrubbing out miscellaneous stains. I really appreciated her efforts, because with one child still prone to potty accidents and one who isn’t even walking, I wouldn’t have bothered. But when Shuggie went to bed that night, she left an entire glass of ice water perched on the arm of the sofa. I woke up to find a water spot covering three fourths of the arm of the couch. Like I said, my furniture is old as the hills but what happened to the coaster Nazi of my youth? I swear, sometimes it’s like having a teenager!

 These are my ideals, but I’ll be the first to admit, if Shuggie wants to read to my children- all night while eating ice-cream cones on the couch, and let the girls take turns tap dancing on my kitchen table- if it means I get one extra hour of sleep or have one less load of laundry to do by myself…I’ll happily look the other way.

(Robin O’Bryant is a Mount Pleasant resident and mother of three. Read her blog online at www.robinschicks.com or e-mail her, zebandrobin@hotmail.com)