Take risks

I am reading a book called "The Mommy Diaries, finding yourself in the daily adventure" and it's basically a bunch of stories from moms and their experiences raising their kids. I came across this particular part and wanted to share it with you, just in case you haven't read the book.
This is written by Cathy Penshorn-"As my boys grew up, I had to push myself to grow with them. This meant being open to new places, new experiences, and yes, some new ideas. It meant working hard on not overreacting to most everything. It meant trying very hard to evaluate a request from their point of view and deciding to say yes whenever possible instead of saying no just because it didn't sound like fun to me." This part just really hit home with me. I find myself saying no to Ada about things she would want to do and I don't like to do. That's something I'm gonna try hard not to do. I guess we have to remember that even though they are our children that doesn't mean that like to do the same things we do, or dress the way we do, or have the same interests we do.
For example, I always let Ada pull out all the stuff in the kitchen, like pots and pans, Tupperware stuff, spoons etc.. to play with. Darren, on the other hand, finds this incredibly messy and cluttered and didn't want Ada to do it. And quite frankly, couldn't understand why I let her. I told him it's not that I love picking it up or watching her "make a mess," it's that she has so much fun playing with it and it doesn't hurt anything for her to play with them. So, take a risk and let your kids do something they want instead of saying no just because you might have to clean it up or you don't like doing it.
I also want to say and I am very proud of my husband for saying yes to many things Ada wants to do even if he doesn't like them, including playing with the pots and pans. And I hope that both of us as parents will continue to say yes to many things Ada and Isaac want to do, including football for Isaac. Man, that's gonna be a tough one for me.
Hope everyone has a happy New Year and stick to the goals you set for the new year.