Friday, March 13, 2009

TT4 today

It's been a busy day, so this post is up late. But the day made me change what I was going to post tonight. And that is, to say yes as often as you can to your kids because the no's come easy.

I could have easily said no to my 3 year old when he asked me to read him a book (so I could clean the kitchen), but I didn't.
I could have easily said no to my 5 year old when he asked me to color with him (so I could fold the laundry), but I didn't.
I could have easily said no to my 8 year old when he asked me to make brownies with him (because I could do it faster by myself), but I didn't.
I could have easily said no to my 12 year old when he asked me if his friends could come in and play (so the house didn't get messed up), but I didn't.

Do you sometimes say 'not right now' and your kids know that means you won't ever get to it? Can you always say yes? no. I can't always grant their requests, but I try to when I can. I'm trying to teach them to value people more than things (or in a mom's case, 'things to do'). This echoes my post from last week about playing with your kids. Except this time isn't planned. It's the simple requests they have that catch you in the middle of doing something. Say yes when it's not convenient. Say yes when you don't want to do it. Say yes because you can.

Next week we'll talk about how to make the yes easy.
~type to you thursday~

5 comments:

Annie said...

Thanks for the reminder, I need to do this more often. My kids think "just a minute" means forever... :)

m said...

Great advice Denise---you are so wise! Such a blessing!

v. said...

this hit me hard because last week my 8 year old asked me to play a game and I said we ran out of time and he said, "You always say that" which is NOT true but I don't want him having that opinion of me. I need to make time. As a single parent, I always feel the need to be constantly working to stay on top of things (which is something that is NEVER done).So, I made a promise to myself that I would stop and MAKE TIME. I decided that even though it was way past bedtime, we played the game

JOY said...

I need to change my heart and will of what I want to do. sad to say but why do we not want to stop and take the time to play? That would be more fun in the end. I am asking God to change my heart to want to play and enjoy my children it's not I don't have time it's truly I don't want to do that. Thanks for the heart check.

Carrie said...

I was just talking to my husband about this last night... this is something I have recently recognized in myself and I DON'T LIKE IT!! My parents told me "no" a lot of the time. They say now that it was because they had me later in life, but now I'm getting to that "later in life" point and I don't want to be like that to our son. I want to be involved in everything that he is involved in! Thanks for sharing your heart!