Yes Day - I Really Did It

At the beginning of the summer I wrote about Yes Day.

My sister in law had planned a day for her kids where she'd say "Yes" to everything (within reason).  My sister in law is a planner.  She sat down the night before and made a list of things the kids would like to do the next day that she would say "Yes" to.  At the time, I thought that was crazy.  I thought my kids would go bananas if they knew I'd say "Yes" all day.

Several readers suggested I not tell my kids it's Yes Day and just try to say "Yes" as often as possible in one day.  I thought that sounded better to me.  Ha.

So Friday night after we put the kids to bed, I said to the Hubs:  "FYI, I think tomorrow is Yes Day."

"Oh yeah?  How come?" he asked.

"We don't have any plans and I just thought we could get it out of the way.  It will be fun."

"OK, if you say so," he replied.

The next day the kids woke up and the first thing Adolpha asked me was if she could wear a fancy dress.  Shit.  I never let her wear her "good" clothes on a normal day.

"Uhhh...well, I was thinking maybe you wanted to wear play clothes today.  It's Saturday and I thought we might do something fun today."  That was good.  I didn't say "No" at least.

"Like what?" she asked.

"I don't know.  What do you think sounds fun?" I asked.

"How about Deanna Rose?"

Deanna Rose is a park close by that has animals and playgrounds and exhibits and my kids love to go there.  I have a season pass to Deanna Rose.  I thought, Perfect.  I'm going to get off so cheap today.  We'll spend all day there.

Everyone got up and got dressed and after a very normal breakfast (they didn't know they could ask for ice cream) we headed out to Deanna Rose.

On the way there Gomer asked, "Can we ride the pony?"  My kids never ask to ride the pony.  They know that it costs money and that the only people who pay for them to ride the ponies are grandparents.  Little did he know, though, my season pass gives me 4 free pony rides.  Ha!

"Yes."

"Really?!"

"Yep.  Let's do it."

We hit the stables first and the kids rode the ponies.

Getting to watch the pony pee was the highlight of the day.  Now I understand "pee like a racehorse."

"Can I feed the baby goats?" Gomer asked.  There are baby goats that you can feed a bottle.

My season pass card showed a picture of 4 goats and I assumed that meant that I got 4 bottles so I said, "Yes," only to find out that you get a baggy of goat food pellets, not the bottle, but I'd already said "Yes," so I forked over a buck for the bottle (Adolpha didn't want one).

I paid to get in, I paid to feed your baby goats AND I get the pleasure of doing your job too?  You're a diabolical genius, Deanna Rose.

Now Gomer was starting to feel empowered.  Surely he realized something was afoot.  He tried his luck again, "Can we mine?"

Son of a bitch!  The mining is the biggest racket.  It is not part of my season pass.  You pay $4.50 a kid for a bag of sand and "gems" and then they pan for gold in a stream and they get to keep their rare finds.  "Yes," I said through gritted teeth.

"Hey Mom, I'm pretty sure this one is a real emerald!"  It had better be.

After we rode the ponies, fed the baby goat and mined for gold, the kids were bored with Deanna Rose and they were ready to move on.  It wasn't even lunch time.  I had envisioned spending most of the day at the park and now they were done??

"We're hungry," they said in unison.

"Let's go out to lunch.  You can go anywhere you want!" said the Hubs.

"OK!  I want Burger King!" said Adolpha.  Gomer agreed.

I threw up in my mouth a little.  I despise Burger King with every fiber of my being.

"Really guys?  Daddy said anywhere and you say Burger King?  You can do better than that."

They were adamant.  Nothing could sway them...except cash.  "I'll pay you each a dollar to change your mind," I told them.

That worked.  Two bucks bought me a trip to Sonic.

"Can we have a picnic?" asked Adolpha.

"Yes."

We bought our Sonic and headed to a park they'd driven past once, but never got to stop at.  We ate our picnic and they played while I started adding up in my head what I'd spent so far.

I was a bit irritated with myself.  Yes Day was getting out of control.  Yes, the kids were fairly well-behaved and we were having fun, but shit, I was going to be out of money soon.  Plus, they just kept asking for more.  Those greedy little bastards!

As I was mulling this over in my head, Gomer was whining about something stupid and Adolpha was messing around with her grape slushy and ended up spitting a mouthful all over herself and me.  "That's it!" I roared.  "This day is over!"

The kids just looked at me like I had gone crazy.  The Hubs said quietly, "Are you sure?  You started this.  You're really going to end it now?  At lunch time?"

"I'm done," I said. "I'm so annoyed."

I was ready to call off Yes Day.  I was ready to throw in the towel and tell my kids how much they'd pissed me off.  I was just about to ruin their day when the people who had been eating next to us stopped by our table.

"Hi.  Would you like some water?  We're going around to parks today to pass out cold water to people who look like they could use some."  I looked up to see a lady standing in front of me holding a poster board with a picture of a baby on it.

"Why?" I asked.

"Well, today is The Great Kindness Challenge and we've decided that we'd like to pass out water."

"Who is the baby on the poster?"

"That was our friend, Lucy.  She died of cancer and we're honoring her memory today."

I tell you what.  Nothing gets to me more than a sick or dying or dead child.  Nothing makes me sadder than that.  Looking at that picture of Lucy all I could think was, I just yelled at my kids and Lucy's gone. I bet Lucy's mom wishes to God she could have one more day with Lucy.  I bet she wishes that she could have a Yes Day.  I bet Lucy's mom wouldn't care about what she's spent or if Lucy messed around.

I felt like an asshole.  Completely and totally.

"It's still on," I told the Hubs.  He nodded in agreement.

We called the kids back and asked them what they'd like to do next.

They decided they'd like to roller skate.  They've never been and they're always begging me to take them.  "Yes," I said.

We headed to the rink and they strapped on skates.  Holy shit, my offspring is uncoordinated!  I was sure Gomer was going to break his arm and Adolpha came close to breaking hers again.  The roller rink luckily had these crazy roller/walker things they'd made out of PVC pipe and they worked magic on my accident-prone kids.

Gomer doing his bad ass "jump" moves...with his walker.

During roller skating I did say "No" several times to Adolpha's repeated begging for slushies.  She'd just had one with her lunch and there was no way I was letting her have another one.  I tried diverting her several times, but finally I had to bring down the "No" hammer.  It had to be done.

After roller skating they were hot and tired and, of course, hungry.  I had to say "No" a few more times to random snacks and vending machines on the way to the car.

As we were walking back to the car, I asked them "Did you guys notice anything different about today?"

"Umm...well...no, not really," Gomer said.  Seriously??

"We were really busy today," Adolpha said.  Yes!

"Yes, we were.  Daddy and I decided last night that today we'd try and say 'Yes' as much as possible to you guys.  That's why we did so many fun things.  It was a nice surprise, wasn't it?"

"Ohhh....sooo, is it still going on?" Gomer asked.  "Can I have the Lego Death Star?"

You little shit.

COST OF "YES DAY":


Deanna Rose                        $12   (portion of my pass used)
Goat bottle                             $1
Mining                                   $9
Bribes                                    $2
Sonic                                    $18
Roller skating                       $18
Walker/roller thingies            $4
Taco Bell                             $20    (the Hubs let them pick dinner too)
Movie from the library         free

Total:                                   $84

As Hubs' said, "The cost was high, but the memories are priceless."  Aww, he's such a softie, but we're not doing that again for a long time.

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