This mom’s “working rocks” explanation is the perfect way to teach boundaries to young kids

Kids are naturally curious — they want to explore the world around them by touching things, even when that’s not necessarily appropriate. So this mom’s genius idea of explaining the concept of “working rocks” to her young son is something every parent needs to hear.

The mom, who goes by @kelsewhatelse on Instagram, started her now-viral video by holding up a rock for the camera and explaining, “I tell my kids that these are ‘working rocks.’ All I have to do is put the word ‘working’ in front of something and my kid will leave it alone.”

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A post shared by Kelsey Pomeroy (@kelsewhatelse)

She goes on to explain that the phrase “working rocks” began because her son loves to play with rocks, but some rocks shouldn’t be toys. So they developed the phrase to explain to him that some rocks “have a job to do…like if it’s a path and they need to be their for people to walk or drive cars on, we need to let them do their jobs.”

Here’s the really genius part, though. @kelsewhatelse explained that the phrase can be used for way more than just rocks. She can now put the word “working” in front of anything and her son will know not to touch it: “working sign,” “working door,” “working flowers.” It works for anything!

“It’s hard for kids to differentiate between what is off limits and what is within the limits of play so I find that using the word ‘working’ helps them understand what items have jobs and what items don’t have jobs,” she wrote in the caption. “Using this method also opens up a lot of great discussions about what the intended purpose for some items are.”

As someone in the comments pointed out, “And it transfers right over to when they first encounter a service dog too – that’s a working dog, we mustn’t bother it!”

And of course, this important point, “No honey this is working chocolate. It has a job to do making mommy happy!”

No matter how you use it, this is a perfect way to help younger kids start to understand boundaries and rules.