When to say Yes!

We are on whatever day of the pandemic and we have spent more time with our kids than even before! The silver lining to this pandemic for our family is spending time together. We have NEVER spent this much time together and we are navigating a new family culture.

Family culture- this is such a fun buzz word right not but I honestly love it. Creating family culture is simply what you what your family dynamics and core to be. We have focused on 3 major things to define our family culture over the past couple years, Family time, Faith and Humor, yes the name of my blog is a cross section of our family! 😊. During normal time family culture is a part time job, but during a pandemic it feels harder as we are together all the time.

Yes our family time has been great but we have a six year old and an almost 4 year old, plus 2 dogs and 2 adults. This combination on any day can cause a headache. But recently my husband and I have realized we say, No to our kids more often than Yes. I am the one who usually caves to my kids requests but we both have been saying No a lot, and our kids called us out on it. 🤦‍♀️

So when to say Yes?

We stared with some planned small things:

Staying up a bit later (our kids love this)

Letting them fix their plates at dinner

Chasing fireflies after dark (staying up later)

Letting them have ice cream for snack

Putting up tents in our living room

Picking out their own clothes

Letting my daughter do her own hair

You get the picture, the throngs we say yes to are not huge and have very little impact on our lives, but it allows our kids to have their independence and to hear YES!

I have spoked to so many parents during the pandemic that know how great their kids are, but are frustrated by how their kids are acting! Try saying yes to something each day your kids would enjoy! See how it helps or makes the No’s less loud.

This weekend I said yes to a ride to our neighbors property in the mountains. The kids had already had baths and were in their jammies, but we said, YES! When we were sharing gratefuls the next day, my daughter shared that going to on adventure to pick flowers was her grateful for the weekend! 🥰

-Amy