My attempt to be a "yes" mom

Lets be honest here, I really wish I was a fun mom that said yes to all those fun, messy, chaotic, crazy ideas children come up with, but I AM NOT!  I am the "no" mom.  I answer my children with the word "no" a lot because the things they want to do are messy and lets face it, those things stress me out.  But I am trying to be better because we all have room for improvement, right?

Last night my kids talked about sleeping in the same room together.  Audrey had it figured out.  They were both going to sleep in her room.  She would sleep on the floor and Ayden could sleep in her bed.  The problem is is that Audrey's bed has no railing and Ayden would roll off the bed onto Audrey on the floor if they executed her plan.  I blew off their idea, but it resurfaced as a topic at dinner.  Ayden was determined to sleep on the floor while getting ready for bed.  He set up his make shift bed on the floor with his stuffed animals, blankets, and pillows.  It was then I decided to be a yes mom.  I asked if they wanted me to move Audrey's mattress into Ayden's room on the floor.  They both could sleep on their mattresses on the floor next to each other.  They were pumped and I felt like such a nice mom, double bonus!!

Bed time routine was fabulous.  They brushed their teeth, listened to three stories, and they were so excited to go to sleep, first time ever, by the way.  We get them covered up and that is when the chaos began.  They giggled, moved around, commented on how the barking dogs were waking them up (even though they never fell asleep), the door was not cracked enough, the light was on, then the light was off.  The list of craziness continues for forty minutes.  I could tell Ayden was ready for bed, but he kept going until Audrey finally realized it was time to sleep and Ayden was no longer going to participate in the shenanigans.

There were two things learned from this entire experience.  Number one, being a "yes" mom is hard and I don't think I am cut out to be the "yes" mom.  I may be a good "maybe" mom, but a "yes" mom takes a lot more energy than I think I will ever have.  Number two is that if I wasn't a "yes" mom this evening we may have not heard the most precious prayer from Audrey's mouth.  Audrey was quick to tell me how we forgot to do our thankful prayer, but she was ready to take on the job because she thrives on being in charge.  (A trait by the way she inherits from her father...hehe.)   She asked Ayden what he was thankful for and he responded Audrey and she responded that she was thankful for Ayden.  Her prayer was as follows:  "Dear Lord, Thank you for allowing Audrey and Ayden to love each other.  It is great that we have each other.  Amen."

Now if that doesn't make the chaos of being a "yes" mom for the night worth it, I don't know what would.