Yes Mom

There is a movie called "Yes Man" that came out a few years ago. I've only seen it once but the gist is that the main character is always saying no to everyone.  He gets cursed and has to say yes to anything anyone asks of him.  He learns a valuable lesson about life and all that good stuff. The movie was pretty silly but it did make me think about how much I say no, specifically to my children.

No, you can't have cake for breakfast.  No more t.v.  No, we've read three books and I'm tired--go to bed.  You are already doing dance, gymnastics, and piano so no you can't play soccer and take tennis lessons. No you can't go outside right now, we have homework.  No you MAY NOT get the glitter out. No you can't make your "special salad" for dinner tonight.

Really, it wears me out.  I hate saying no so much.  Most of the time I say no for their own good, but sometimes its because I just don't want to deal with whatever it is they want.  I don't want to have to clean up the mess, stop what I'm doing, or get out of our routine.

Today I decided to be a Yes Mom. My alarm went off at 6:25 and I woke to pouring down rain. It never crossed my mind that it would affect school.  So at 6:45 I went to wake up the kids like I do every day.  We had just sat down to a bowl of cereal when the school system called saying we would have a two hour delay. Grrrr.....if that call had been 15 minutes earlier and I could have gone back to bed!  So we ate breakfast and turned on cartoons (we NEVER turn the tv on in the mornings before school).  At 9 a.m. I found out school was cancelled for the day due to flooding of our streets.  At 10 one or two children wanted food.  I asked what they wanted and heard waffles.  So, I thought, "Why not?" So I made waffles and we ate 2nd breakfast.  Then My Boy asked to ride his bike.  In the rain.  I thought, "Its 70 degrees.  Why not?"  So we all geared up and went outside.

We stayed out for an hour or so and then went in.  They asked for more t.v. My answer,"Go for it." At 1:30 people were hungry again.  I said yes to making 3 different things.  Then they asked to make cookies.  We did.

As of right now, I'm NOT forcing the baby take a nap.  She and her sister are reading books in her crib.  My Boy is doing a jigsaw puzzle with 100 pieces.  No one has screamed today.  No one has hit a sibling today. Everyone has behaved quite well on this lawless day and we've had a pretty darn awesome time.

Who knows what we will do next?

Maybe I'm not going to be a Yes Mom everyday but I'm definitely going to give it a go more often.