I believe that I am my children's guide, mentor, supporter, facilitator, nurturer, translator, interpretor, etc. which means that I help them explore their own principles in difficult moments. I'll help them consider the kinds of principles we choose to live by in our family home as the situations arise, which means we periodically have discussions about whether we choose Force as a principle and what that would mean. We take a certain choice to its logical conclusion and decide whether that's something that we want to bring into our family and our home. Sometimes that means I make a principled stand that I don't choose to live by force and how things would change if I did.

Living by principles, as I see it, requires a constant mindfulness and critical assessment of individual situations as they arise to discover which principles are applicable to the situation and to what extent. Simply overlaying a principle onto a situation without that careful consideration turns it back into a rule, imo. It's the thought behind the principles that differentiate them from rules.