Why Not?

A few days ago, Fingerprints On The Fridge posted her new parenting style.

And it convicted me right to the heart.

She had decided to start asking herself, "Why not?" when her girls asked her to do something instead of just saying "No."

She wrote about how children have so many boundaries and hear "no" so many times each day. How they have little control over what they do and do not get to do.

And I am the worst.

I don't always say no right out, but I'm sure if Josie had a penny for every time I told her, "after I'm done with this maybe," she would be off to Yale.

And to make it worse, I finish that task and add on 5 more things that I need to finish before we can do what she asked.

And by the time I'm done and ready to do what she asked, she is usually over it and not interested anymore.

She has been awesome with the baby these past couple weeks. But over the past few days, she has started to get rough. She is disobeying right in front of us.

And I know she is doing it for attention.

So to nip this before it becomes a habit, Andrew and I are going to try out the "Why Not" attitude.

Instead of saying no or maybe later, I will ask myself, "Why not?"

"What would it hurt?" "What can wait until later?"

Like yesterday, she wanted to wear her Easter Dress over to her Aunt Amber's for a playdate.

At first I said, "Absolutely not."

And then I thought, well, why not? What would it hurt if she wore the Easter Dress that she has only gotten to wear once and probably won't fit her the next time a holiday comes around? Who cares if she is over dressed for playing?

If it makes her feel like a princess and it won't hurt anything, why not?

So she wore it. And you would have thought I gave her the moon.

I'm learning that while all our outings are fun and fill up my day, they result in lots of time strapped in a carseat with the day already planned out for her.

And sometimes the girl just wants to ride her bike and get pushed on the swing.

Of course there are some things that have to get done and some things that are dangerous that will still result in a no.

I'm not interested in running a child led house.

But honestly, most of Josie's requests are just to play or have my full attention.

So this week starts my new plan and we will see how it goes. We are flying to my Dad's house on Thursday so I'm sure this week won't be too difficult!