Another “Yes” Day
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This week it was Megan’s turn for some one-on-one time with Mom. I made the mistake of calling it a “date” after having read a section in the book I’m reading, Season of Change, by Rebecca Ingram Powell, about “dating” your children. Josh and Megan quickly informed me that they were NOT having dates with Brian and I (it’s just the two of them since Brianna is out of town, so we were each going to take one of them out) because, “boys don’t go on dates with boys and girls don’t go on dates with girls.”
We decided to call it “boys’ night out” and “girls’ night out.” (And I said a quick prayer of thanks to God that my kids saw the need to change what we were calling our evening out.)
So, out we went. Megan chose to go to dinner at McDonald’s. Ugh. That’s where Josh chose last week.
However, it was a yes day, so we went to McDonald’s. And, who should we run into, but Josh and Brian? Megan saw them first and came running to me to say, “Mom, there’s a problem! Dad and Josh are here.”
So, we sat beside them, but not with them, because, after all this was boys’/girls’ night out, NOT family night, and afterwards, we went our separate ways.
Yes days are really cool. On a yes day, you can do things like eat the M&M McFlurry (that was given to you for free because they made too many and they were going to have to throw it away anyway, so they offered it to you…cool!) after eating one token bite of your hamburger.
And, you don’t even have to eat the rest of your hamburger.
And, your mom will still buy you an ice cream on the way home (and, if you choose not to eat it and give it to Dad to enjoy when you get home, that’s okay, too…especially with Dad!)
On yes days, you can talk your mom into buying you junky little toys from the dollar store, even though she knows that she’ll probably be throwing them away in a couple of weeks.
And, she might even buy you a bag of stuffed animals from the thrift store even though she has banned any new stuffed animals from coming into the house in the event that they should form a coup d’etat. But, hey, when the bag contains the little mini-Build-A-Bear from a McDonald’s Happy Meal that exactly matches your very-most-favorite full-sized Build-A-Bear — you know, the one Happy Meal toy that led your mom to eat at McDonald’s for umpteen weeks in a row and even drive around to various McDonald’s to specifically search for, to no avail — what else is a mom going to do, but buy the bag.
It was, after all, the best $0.99 that Mom has spent in awhile.
I’d saved up old bread and end pieces for a few weeks — enough to amount to a full loaf of bread so that Megan and I could feed the ducks on our GNO (that’s “girls’ night out” for those of you who aren’t forced to listen to the Hannah Montana CD ten or twenty times a week). We picked the perfect time, apparently. The ducks, who appear to be very well-trained by lots of people carrying bags of bread, started swimming toward us as soon as we got out of the van. We were surrounded by at least 20-30 ducks, geese and Canada geese. Megan told me a couple of times that it was a little bit scary…but it was fun, too. There was even a duck who, as crazy as it sounds, reminded me of our dog, Peanut. I think it was his eyes.
After feeding the ducks, we went to get an ice cream. Megan thanked me over and over for the evening and told me how much fun she’d had.
Yeah, I think I can get used to this carving out individual time for my kiddos.
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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.
Love your kids’ t-shirts. Where did you get them?
Ben and Shira love getting alone time with a parent. We try to give it to them at least once a week. I think it does the kids good to get away from each other. I know it does me good to get away from them. at least the working parent has alone time on the way to work and back. We SAHM’s never get a break.
My kids have celiac disease so when we do have bread it is expensive. On Sunday Marc took Shira to feed ducks. They fed the ducks this uber expensive, GFCFSF cereal that I had to drive 40 min to buy. Let’s just say that I was distinctly unimpressed.
We used to have a bakery thrift store down the road. We’d buy their stalest bread, don gloves and feed ducks. Now that that the store is closed, we don’t have a cost effective source of duck food.
How fun! I absolutely love the idea of a “yes day”.
Kris, I need to do this too. A yes day sounds great. It is hard to spend time with each (4 not counting Josh and Amanda) since I am babysitting a grand baby as well now. But, i am committed to trying. It was good to see you a few brief moments at the curriculum fair. I hope all is well with you and your family.
Donna Scott
I love that idea!!
Kelsey
mysweetlife.org
I like your “yes day” idea. Very cute!