As parents, we say no a lot. No, you can’t have more candy. No, we’re not buying that thing. No, we’re not taking you to Vegas for your 10th birthday (an actual request from Ava).

The problem is we end up saying no to things we should say yes to.

I’ve been trying to default to yes lately, especially for experiences and interests.

Two examples.

Sometimes when we go hang out with friends, Ava asks if she can pack an overnight bag in case she gets invited to sleep over. I’ve usually said no because I don’t want to impose or appear presumptuous that our friends would be taking our kid for the night.

But I want her to have those experiences and good for her for thinking ahead and wanting to be prepared. So now the answer is yes – you can pack a bag, but don’t invite yourself and we’ll just see what happens.

Ava has a passion for creative performance. She writes plays and songs. She likes to act and sing. And she loves making videos.

The first video I helped her make last year, Drink Surprise, took 6+ hours to create and I did all the editing.

She’s been asking to make more videos recently, and while being a YouTube star isn’t exactly my thing, I want to support her creative pursuits.

I helped her film a 4th of July video, but this time around we installed iMovie on her laptop and she did 90% of the editing while I sat next to her and answered questions.

I also bought the domain name ava.video to make it easy for Ava to direct people to her YouTube channel or any future video projects.

Yes to experiences with friends. Yes to following your passion. Still a no on the Vegas trip for your 10th birthday.

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This week’s artwork created by Midjourney with the prompt: video studio setup, pixar-style