YES Day

Think back to your days as a child... despite all the happy memories, didn't there seem to be too many rules and regulations?  Even if your parents were pretty easy going, there were still a ton of do's and don'ts outside out the home.  This is were the BRILLIANT concept of YES Day enters the picture.

As a parent of two wonderful beings, I find myself needing to change the routine from time to time just to keep things fresh.  YES Day allows for that change to take place quiet naturally.  Simply put, YES Day is a designated day (or time period) to say YES to everything your children ask for.  That's all.   Then let the day unfold before your very eyes.

Already I am hearing the rumbling in the room and the reasons why this would never work in your situation.  Okay, here are some parameters to help ease your fears that your children will take over and leave you barricaded in a small room with nothing but a day old newspaper and half a sandwich...

• Pick a day and time that is easy for you - now if doing the entire day scares you choose a portion of the day and build up from there.
• Do not announce to the child that you are going to say yes to everything.
• Lift the Yes to everything rule if they ask for something that will harm them the planet or set you on a path to financial ruin
• Relax

Let me let you in on a little secret.  Most of the things your child(ren) ask for aren't really that big of a deal and YES Day allows you to enjoy the simplicities of life a little bit more!

Laughing All the Way

I LOVE TO LAUGH!  I love the sensation my body gets when I am laughing.  I love the fact that you can actually loose control of your bodily functions while laughing.

Recently my son shared with me that while at lunch with friends and his teacher, a comment was made and he laughed in the process of drinking - you know what happened next.  The spraying of the table with" liquid laughter residue".  My son was not very happy and felt his friend should have exercised better timing.  I gently reminded him that while timing is everything in comedy, funny is funny because it is usually not planned.

I began remembering days where I laughed until the point of loosing control and realized I kept on laughing.  There are two places I can always count on loosing laugh calories; with my cousins from my mother's family and with our family friends the Hopsons. These remain 100% laugh-fests! Growing up there were many episodes of milk or kool-aid through the nose whenever we gathered with the Hopsons.  I am not sure how we ever got through a meal with them because it seemed someone always had something funny to say.  When I gather with my cousins, I accept the fact that it will take me twice as long to eat because of the laughter.  And even though the Hopson family and my family have experienced the regular losses and disappointments of life, there always seems plenty of room at the table for a huge helping of laughter.