We recently reported on Jennifer Garner’s annual “Yes Day” with her kids. Inspired by the book Yes Day! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Garner devotes one full day a year to saying nothing but “yes” to her kids’ whims and desires. The actress posted a very tired-looking selfie on Instagram after this year’s “Yes Day” ended in sleeping in a tent. It was something every exhausted parent could relate to.
One mom, Amy Betters-Midtvedt of Appleton, Wisconsin, liked the idea of “Yes Day” but feared that saying yes to every one of her five kids’ requests would leave her broke by the end of it. Instead, she instituted a “Yes Half Hour.” Betters-Midtvedt felt particularly bad for her youngest son, Sam, who is 6 years old. She told the Huffington Post that he often gets lost in the shuffle and she wanted to do something special for him. She said, “What he wants to do doesn’t always match up with what the big kids want to do, and I wanted him to know that he gets a say too.”
On the way to the bus stop in the morning, the mom told her son what would be in store for him after school. She wrote about it in a Facebook post:
…[W]e talked about what a budget meant and how he’d have to make some choices and that he should think about what he most wanted (a spooky grave) and off he went.
He was beside himself with joy when he came out of school. And as we pulled up to the store he asked if he could pick out a scary dinner too.
I said yes.
And decided I was going to say yes to whatever he wanted as we shopped as long as it was within reason.
The joy in this kid the whole time we were shopping was awesome.
When Betters-Midtvedt shared her “Yes Half Hour,” her friends chimed in with ways to make the day a little less expensive. The mom also realized that it doesn’t need to revolve around shopping, but could include a trip to the local park or something similar. In the end, it’s all about connecting with each other and enjoying each other more fully.
Ok guys you may have seen the awesome post going around about (one of my all time favs) Jennifer Garner's Yes Day?…
Posted by Hiding in the Closet with Coffee by Amy Betters-Midtvedt on Monday, October 9, 2017
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