An Hour of YES Everyday

“Mommy, will you play superheroes with us?” my boys ask.

“Yes!” I say over my shoulder as I load the last of the breakfast dishes, “but let me put the clothes in the dryer first!”

But before I do that, I need to find an empty basket to put the current dry clothes in. There are no empty baskets, so I’ll have to put at least one basket’s worth of folded clothes into drawers. While I’m in my kids’ room, I see water bottles on their night stand. I take those to the kitchen, and hey while I’m in here, I really ought to take something out of the freezer for dinner…Okay back to the laundry, wet clothes in dryer. Check. I walk toward the play room to assume superhero status and I hear the faint cries of Baby Brother waking from his morning nap. Annnnd there goes the window for me to play with my big boys.

I feel like all of my life is a thread of, “If you give a mouse a cookie” except it’s not really fun or funny. It’s just jumble of housework, meal prep, and parenting without end.

I’m coming to grips with the fact that in order for our household to keep spinning, I don’t get to play with my kids all day. They must learn to play independently and with each other. (This is a hard lesson for me because I’m not naturally orderly, but I am naturally inclined to build relationships and enjoy time with others.)

But, I’m also coming to grips with the fact that I could spend every waking moment doing my household duties, and I might never get to the end of them.

What I do know for certain is that if I wait for the perfect window to play–my house to be clean and dinner to be prepped and for the baby to be happy–I might as well plan to play superheroes at 4pm on June 15th, 2038!

And ya know what? They won’t want to play superheroes with me then.

So I’m making a resolve. I’m giving them an hour of YES every day.

One hour, when the baby just starts his morning nap. Even if the dishes aren’t done or the laundry needs switching. I set it all aside and I say YES.

“Mommy, will you play superheroes with us?”
YES.
“Will you wear this cape?”
YES.
“Can we build a fort together?”
YES.
“Can we have a snack in our fort?”
YES.
“Will you take pictures of us making funny faces?”
YES!

One hour of a fully present mom who doesn’t let the mess around her steal her joy or peace.

It’s only an hour, and then it’s time to make lunch or pay bills or scrub toilets or hey–let’s be real–check my phone. And for them, it’s time for their chores, their schoolwork, their craft time, their screen time or their independent play.

I hope some day when they don’t want to play superheroes with me anymore, they look back and remember a mom who said YES more than they remember a mom who said, “after the dishes,” which really meant NO.

I hope they remember a messy home with a present mom at the middle of it.

(But I bet they won’t remember the state of their surroundings very much at all. Probably just how they felt as they figured life out.)

I hope that the hour of YES is what we all need to remember how much we love each other and what we’re doing all this work for anyway.

Would you give the hour of YES a shot in your day? Let me know how it goes if you do!

 

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