Yes Day was recommended to me by my thirteen year old neighbor. I was skeptical because of its mediocre IMDB rating. But it is available on Netflix, so I decided to give it a try, and I was pleasantly surprised.
The Premise
Being a parent, changes you. Suddenly, you’re saddled with a lot more responsibility than you could have ever imagined. Spontaneity, excitement and adventure take a backseat, when raising helpless infants, curious toddlers, excitable kids and teens testing their boundaries, but one just gets used to it. Too used to it, perhaps.
Preoccupied with safety, structure and routine, parents often forget what it was like to be young and carefree. While kids are driven by curiosity, a yearning for new experiences and finding their place in a world of exciting opportunities, their parents must master the balancing act of simultaneously keeping them safe while helping them learn to fly. The thrill of small discoveries and intriguing experiments, is often lost in the exhaustion of cleaning up the messes that follow.
As a result, children feel like their parents sole job is to keep them from having a good time, while parents secretly long to be able to indulge their kids, if only they could be assured that the indulgence would not hamper the safety and long term well being of their children.
While little of this can be changed in day today life, the movie Yes Day experiments with the idea of an occasional day of indulgence for everyone.
Plot Summary
As the family in the movie prepares for its very first Yes Day, the kids work hard to earn it, and the parents take a deep breath and emotionally prepare themselves to handle minor disasters, hoping that the ground rules they have set, and the values they have inculcated in their kids over the years, will suffice to avert any major catastrophes.
When Yes Day finally arrives, everyone is excited. What typically forbidden activities have the kids planned? How creative can they be in maximizing fun, while adhering to the minimal ground rules? Will the parents overcome their fears and accede to all the crazy demands that comply with the ground rules? Will Yes Day be a grand success or a total disaster? Watch the movie to find out.
Highlights
The kids design imaginative, fun filled, exciting Yes Day activities that skirt the boundaries of the ground rules but stay within, thus generating heartwarming moments of bonding and togetherness.
The day, beginning with fun and laughter progresses with family members learning more about each other and culminates in them gaining a deeper understanding of each other’s dreams, hopes and vulnerabilities.
The movie illustrates that fun, excitement and adventure come at a price, so one needs to strike the right balance between indulgence and its consequences. It also demonstrates that only through experience can one learn responsibility. So, a controlled exposure to danger and real-life consequences may be the best way to prepare kids for the real world.
Watching this movie as a family can help kids and parents open up to each other about their needs and expectations, fostering constructive discussions that may lead to suitable compromises in matters of regular conflict.
Freedom can be intoxicating, and is best served in small incremental doses of intermittent Yes Days with diminishing ground rules.