Say yes as often as you can
Jan 5th, 2008 by Jill
A long time ago, a friend told me that the best parenting advice he’d ever been given was to say yes as much as possible to your child. An aunt of his had given him this advice when his baby was first born, and over the years he found himself noticing that he was often tempted to say no to his daughter for his own convenience. For example, she’d ask if she could do a craft, and his first impulse might be to say no, but when he thought about it, he realized that it was because he didn’t want to have to deal with the complication and the mess. And then he’d realize it would be better parenting to say “yes”, and would, and would be glad he did.
It’s good advice for raising kids in two houses, too. Say yes as often as you can to the kids, and to the other house. If you find yourself wanting to say no to an idea or request, think about why. Is it just because of extra hassle? Would it break your heart to say yes, or would it just be a little extra inconvenience? Be as flexible as you can on the things that don’t really matter.
This is good advice. As a single parent post divorce, I could not always do each thing all three children wanted to do all the time. But I could a lot of the time. And I still do.
That’s great advice. I’d never thought about it that way. But now that my daughter has her driver’s license, it’s much harder to say “yes” to taking my car out on the potentially dangerous streets. I need to relax, probably.