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This year more than any other has been the year of “no’s.” No indoor dining, no gathering, no friends, no family, no anything.
Jennifer Garner hopes to change that with her upcoming family Netflix movie Yes Day, which will premiere on the streaming service this Friday, March 12.
Directed by Miguel Arteta, Yes Day stars Garner and Édgar Ramírez as parents who decide to stop saying “No,” to their three children for a day. For 24 hours, they agree to let their kids plan the day and make the rules. Cake for breakfast! Water balloon fights indoors! That kind of thing.
The film is based on the popular children’s book of the same name, and is also based on Garner’s real-life experience hosting “Yes Days” for her three children.
Here’s everything you need to know about the real-life Yes Day challenge that inspired the movie.
What is the Yes Day challenge in Jennifer Garner’s new movie? Is the Yes Day challenge a real thing?
Yes, the “Yes Day challenge” is a real phenomenon. Garner, who produces as well as stars in the Netflix movie, was inspired to start her own “Yes Days” with her family after she read the 2009 children’s book Yes Day by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld. The idea behind a Yes Day, according to the official book synopsis, is this:
No matter how silly the request, there is one day a year when kids always receive a positive response: Can I have pizza for breakfast? YES! Can we have a food fight? YES! Can I stay up really late? YES!
In an interview for the film’s press notes, Garner reflected on her own experience with the Yes Day challenge.
“I read Yes Day! to my middle daughter and she loved it,” Garner said. “She used to fantasize about having a Yes Day and I think she might’ve been three-years-old when she said she wanted a Yes Day for Christmas. So, I did it, and I’ve done it every year since, with the blaring, horrible exception being this last year.”
That said, Garner clarified that her family doesn’t get too wild with it, as her on-screen family does. It’s more about bending the rules than breaking them, the actor said.
“It’s ice cream for breakfast, sleeping outside in the yard, and…I do something with them called Coach Mom where I make them run laps and do push-ups — for fun, not in a serious way — but they’ll do Coach Kids, and they’ll make me do all kinds of crazy things,” Garner said. “My kids’ Yes Days are a surprise, which is different from the movie. We wake up, I’ve cleared my day, I’ve cleared their days, and I just say, ‘Hey, guess what, kids? It’s Yes Day!’ And by then I’ve already planted little things in their mind like, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun if we went to the cake decorating place and everyone did a cake?'”
If you’re thinking of trying a Yes Day with your family, Garner encourages it. “It feels great when you give in to just saying yes. It feels great. Everyone should give it a shot, especially with your kids,” she said. “There is no better time in the world than right now for kids to hear YES after the year they’ve had.”
