"YES!" is the new "No" and it's a useful gift for Mother's and Father's Day

"No" is often a knee jerk response used anywhere and everywhere, but in parenting especially it seems to rule our world. But you don't have to live in a dictatorship of negativity. Nope. You don't.

Is "No" a hard habit to break?* It doesn't have to be. And yes, you can still use "No" and even feel good when you use it. In our book we offer up:

Mommy Guilt-free Principle #5

Get used to saying yes more often and being able to defend your no.

Goonsquad Sarah has shared her recent experience with incorporating more "Yes" into her parenthood in her post "Working On Yes" and so has Bad Mommy Moments with her post "project YES"

"YES" is a Mother's Day or Father's Day gift the entire family can use and enjoy.

*Earworm sufferers, there is hope.

How Was Your Mother's Day?

(Look people. We know you are lurking. We can see how many of you stop by on our stats. WE SEE YOU! But lo and behold, we only have two people brave enough to discuss their Mother's Day? Are you kidding us? C'mon! Jump in, tell us what's going on with you! We wouldn't ask if we really didn't want to know! Would you change anything about Mother's Day for next year? Leave it the same? What???)


We've had technical difficulties. For some unknown reason signing into "Blogger" became impossible for a number of days. Short of calling Oliver Stone, we couldn't figure out the problem or if it was indeed a conspiracy. But right when we were going to look up Ollie, suddenly the Internets opened up and we were able to sign into "Blogger." So now comes the catching up. How was Mother's Day?

We're going to say it, we're not big fans of Mother's Day. We know, it sounds so "unmotherly" to admit we'd rather skip it than observe it. We're not convinced that Mother's Day is useful to anyone else other than the gift card companies. We feel more like moms when we celebrate the birthdays of our children. Because isn't that the real day we all became mothers? However your child came to you,if they were never born, you would not be a mom. But we know there are those who consider having a day where motherhood is acknowledged and celebrated. Where are you on the idea of it? Did you like it more when you were the child honoring your mom or do you enjoy being the one now feted?

How did Mother's Day go for you and yours? Did you find yourself feeling...

Appreciated? Guilty? Annoyed? Happy? Let down? Something else?

Edited to add:
Dads, chime in!