I've always been a bit conscious about being a "yes" mom. I'll never forget one time when I was in Arizona, Staying with my older sister.
My sister's fence around her front yard needed repainting. So what did my sister do? Throw on some old clothes on her young girls (not even school aged yet) and sent them out in the yard to paint the fence. At first I thought she was crazy. They were going to make a HUGE mess. Then I thought about it. Out west, very few people have grass yards. My sister's yard had a few spots of grass, but around the fence was dirt or rocks. So the girls wouldn't be messing up a yard. They had old clothes on, so they wouldn't be ruining clothes. And the paint could wash off of them. So why wouldn't she let them paint the fence?
It struck me what an awesome mom she was, because she'd say "yes" when most other mom's would say no. She always had fun things for the girls to do, things that you wouldn't think they should be doing, but why not? What would it hurt?
I read a blog post today and remembered this time in AZ. Me and chris talked about this a couple times over the years. I've always told him that I don't want to tell our girls "no" for selfish reasons. Of course, When NO is appropriate, It will be used. But what about instances when i just don't want to have to deal with a mess? Or I'm just feeling too tired? I don't let them get away with that. They can't tell me "NO" they don't want to pick up their toys cause they're tired. And I feel like I shouldn't tell them "NO", they can't play with the play-dough cause I'm too tired to clean it up.
I want to be a "Yes" mom as much as I can.
Here's the Blog I read.
She's challenging everyone to be a "Yes" mom for the month of July. I'm going to try and be more conscious of my "yes"s and "No"s. So what about you? Are you a "yes" mom?
I think blogs can be so weird sometimes. For instance, my updater on your blog has said "Trying something out" for 3 days now. Where is that post? I know this is a free service we use and all, but it just confuses me.
ReplyDeleteI like this idea. I've tried to be more fun lately and let my kids have more opportunities. It's important to let them have that and let them experience things and have fun, I think.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post. I went to the website and read the article. Wow, I have a lot to think about. Thanks for sharing this.
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