Episode 180: Forget Being a Yes Mom...Get a NO day!
For the Busy Mommas…
Let's discuss what has become one of my favorite mom decisions of 2024—and possibly the last five years.
There was a big movement after the Yes Day movie came out to incorporate being a YES mom into our lives. I don't know about you, but I'm already a yes mom. I say yes to 1,000 requests a day.
Neither my kids nor I needed me to find more ways to say yes each day or to create a day where I give in to every whim my kids have, but it did make an adorable, albeit impractical, movie.
What I really needed for my sanity—and I would say, for my family—was a day when I could say no, guilt-free, to the extras we're always squeezing in and instead say yes to the things on my to-do list that weren't red-tag items.
It might be a little brutal if you don't know the theory behind red-tag items, but you'll get the reference to motherhood after I explain it.
A Triage Tag (01:50)
"A triage tag is a tool first responders and medical personnel use during a mass casualty incident. With the aid of the triage tags, the first-arriving personnel can effectively and efficiently distribute the limited resources and provide the necessary immediate care for the victims until more help arrives. Triage tags were first introduced by Baron Dominique Jean Larrey, a French surgeon in Napoleon's army"...and I bet he was a dad.
Basically, you get a green, yellow, or red tag depending on your urgent need for help.
As moms, we live with triaging red-tag items.
Our green and yellow tags rarely, if EVER, get the face time they deserve, and those little things follow our to-do lists around like mosquitos you can't kill.
A No day...changes that.
Setting the Stage (03:17)
I looked at my calendar and got ruthless about securing a no-day.
I gathered all my people and explained that Fridays would be my 'no' day. I further explained that we needed a 'no' day to say YES to all the other goods our family, home, and homeschool were currently enjoying.
Then, the hardest step of all, I held the boundary on my no day.
I didn't add plans to my calendar, and I didn't say yes to last-minute requests unless I'd given proper time and energy to thinking them through and praying about them.
That's it.
To this day, I look forward to my 'no' days. When things are crazy and I feel like I'm going to lose my mind during the week, I just remind myself I can do x/y/z on my no day. I remind myself I don't have to run a 36-hour taxi service on my no day.
Be brave and get yourself a 'no' day this week. You won't regret it.
And before you go, would you take 2 minutes and pop up a review on the podcast?! They absolutely make our day (we're talking the very best of moral support!) and they give us the chance to share with more mommas like you.
And beautiful mommas, never forget…
YOU are doing beautiful work!
