Yes Days and Date Nights
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I love having “yes days” with my kids. Yes days are those days that are set up for a parent to be able to say yes to almost anything. A day at the local children’s museum is a good example of a yes day.
Mom, can we go into that exhibit to play?
Yes, we can!
Can we look around in the gift shop?
Absolutely.
Can we go get a snack in the cafe?
You betcha!
Yes days. They’re a wonderful, refreshing break from the more usual no-you-can’t-have-a-snack-right-now-please-go-clean-your-room days.
Last night I had the distinct pleasure of combining a yes day with a date night to result in a wonderful evening spent with the most handsome, blue-eyed male under five-feet-tall living in our home, my son.
Brian took the girls so that I could spend the evening with my handsome young gentleman. I posted a few days ago about working on spending more one-on-one time with each of my kids and Josh was the one who seemed to need it most right now.
I wish you could have seen his face when I asked him if he wanted to be my date for the night. He was so excited! He hugged me so hard. I could see an immediate change in his attitude (an affable, agreeable, helpful change that is still lingering today).
When we left, I asked him where he wanted to go. I told him he could choose anywhere, but he deferred to me. After talking it over, he finally decided on McDonald’s. 😉
So, off to McD’s we went to have some quiet conversation (as quiet as it can be in the McDonald’s Play Place!) over Big Macs and sweet tea. We talked about summer and about what we might like to do together the next time we have some time alone, even if we stay at home. He told me about some things he’s building and other important eight-year-old stuff.
After leaving McD’s, we went to a local used book store to browse around a bit. We didn’t buy anything, but Josh made some exciting finds in the free bin. Then, we went to Toys ‘R Us to browse around a bit and play with the trains. It was interesting to me to see how into army-men-type stuff Josh has gotten. I knew he’d been playing with that sort of stuff at home a lot, but was surprised to see that it held his attention longer than Star Wars stuff.
We finished the evening with a trip to Baskin-Robbins. There’s nothing quite like sitting across the table with a blue-tongued, blue-lipped, blue-toothed blue raspberry sherbet eater to make a mom realize that there is nowhere else she’d rather be and nothing else she’d rather be doing with her life than raising such a polite, funny, thoughtful young man with whom she’s blessed to be spending a few years.
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.
awww glad you had such a good time with your kids! I’ll bet that meant the world to them!
What a beautiful date night! : )
I’m jealous 😉
I need to be spending that one-on-one time with my guys too.
Sweet post. Date nights make great, lasting memories!
Awww…. 😉 So cool! I should be doing more of this myself!
Nekey