Yes Day Review and Guidelines for Your Own Yes Day written by the Elf on 3/12/2021 This post contains affiliate links, you can find out more on our policies page or in the disclaimer at the bottom of the blog.
Know Before You Watch
Movie: Yes Day adventure
Rating: PG
Genre: Comedy, Family
Length: 1 hr. 26 mins.
Age suggested: 5+
Release Date: March 12th, 2021
Streaming Service: Netflix
Themes: Family, Partnership, School, Parenting, Yes Days, Boundaries
Warnings: There are some comical injuries and exaggerated drama but no bad language or blood. There are some spoiler warnings in the ‘is it appropriate’ review section
Quick Summary of Yes Day (No spoilers)
Based off of a book and a growing trend, Netflix’s Yes Day is a fun family comedy starring Jennifer Garner as a mom who is struggling to both relate to and parent her kids. The movie isn’t for everyone, if you are not a fan of cheesy family comedies, avoid this one. But it’s also not just for parents or kids. If you enjoy comedies, have ever felt frustrated by the mundane tasks of being a kid or adult, and want a good laugh- this is a great watch!
The premise is that the kids are in charge and that the parents have to say yes to everything they want to do- with some solid boundaries. A break for both the parents who have to say no ‘a million times an hour’ and the kids who feel like they are never in control. The main goal- a fun family day of connecting and hilarity. Will it go according to plan??
Keep reading for our Yes Day movie review and some guidelines for your own Yes Day if you want to have one after the movie!
Yes Day Movie Review:
**SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT**
**SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT**
-Is Yes Day an Appropriate Watch?-
*No blood or cursing
*There are arrests and ambulance rides, and although they are done comically- if that’s a trigger for your kiddos avoid this movie.
*At a music festival- alcohol, drugs and sex are implied although nothing is shown or directly talked about.
*There are a lot of injuries and a fair amount of violence, all done comically.
*In one scene there are a bunch of young adults that think they are trying out for a Bachelorette type TV show and the guys take their shirts off to display their abs.
*This is a family comedy, so the adult characters all make unrealistic and dangerous blunders. The kids do too, some of them are super dangerous.
Overall, we would say yes- this is an appropriate AND fun family movie night watch!
-Plot/Story-
It’s not a super complicated plot but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good story. And it is a good, hilarious, and relatable family story. Having kids changes your life and they are the best but parenting is so hard. As a teacher the parent/teacher conference section really bugged me, but if you aren’t one you should be able to just glaze past it with a giggle. I thought the time amount they gave for every activity was great, there were not any parts that really dragged for me. My favorite scene was the one where it seems like the officer is a hundred percent on to the kids… and then he isn’t. Another thing that I really loved is that even though the parents and kids were struggling to communicate- they really communicated and loved each other well through the story. Overall a fun family comedy I will definitely be watching again.
-Characters-
The kids are all very believable. Jenna Ortega, Julian Lerner, and Everly Carganilla do excellent jobs with their characters. Edgar Ramirez plays a frustratingly stereotypical caring dad who realizes in the end that he needs to spend more time being a team player at home and saying no like he does at work. And while the scripted character is very 2D, I really thought he did an excellent job making it more than that with the whole family chemistry. It did not surprise me that Jennifer Garner was my favorite character- she’s not only great in general, but what mom does not relate to the frazzled mom?! I certainly do! I would assume she plays a caring, frazzled mom so well because she’s still rocking it in real life too. I also love that they threw in so many references to (without directly naming) her Once Upon a Farm food line. Great comedic acting and fun characters.
Questions and Guidelines for Your Own Yes Day
Questions to ask each other:
- When is a good day to be ‘off grid’ and together without work or school all day that’s not too far away?
- What chores or tasks need to be completed to earn the yes day- make sure to keep it within reach, otherwise, it reinforces the opposite of the goal of letting kids feel some control.
- REMEMBER that the point is to have fun together and let the kids have an encouraging day- not to discourage them and make them see how hard parenting is. How can you prep things to make sure that it’s a positive day?
- What are some reasonable boundaries and expectations to set? Cleaning, stomach aches, etc…
Guidelines for Your Own Yes Day Adventure:
You decide what will work best for your family, but these were the rules set in the movie.
- Each kid gets a spending budget. You can decide if food is included or not.
- Yes Day is a full 24 hours long and should be able to be earned in a reasonable amount of time.
- It shouldn’t require you to travel more than 20 or 30 miles away from home.
- One task or event only has a certain amount of time (Eg: 2 hours). That way everyone gets their turn and you get to do multiple things.
- It cannot be anything violent or too dangerous.
- It can be super messy. But you have to work together to clean up from yes day.
- If the kids are old enough, they can give directions so the parents do not know where they are going.
- It can’t be something that impacts the future after that day. (EG: No getting a new pet because you would be caring for them after Yes Day is over.)
- It should be a LOT of fun!!
- The goal is not to discourage the kids or make them empathize with their parents.
Thanks for checking out our Yes Day Movie Review!
Before you go- check out these other posts
-Find our family friendly Netflix streaming suggestions right here.
-Parent review and discussion questions for the Prime Video movie My Spy
-Our favorite family comedy of all time (a lot less family appropriate than Yes Day) is Instant Family.
-Another great Netflix family movie with John Krasinski and Emily Blunt is Animal Crackers.
Down The Hobbit Hole Blog and this Yes Day Review and Yes Day Discussion Questions use affiliate links. We only link products we think you’ll like and you are never charged extra for them. As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you. We also use cookies to gather analytics and present advertisements. This allows us to keep writing discussion questions and telling ridiculous dad jokes. Find our other reviews with discussion questions here. Our posts about faith here. And our posts about family stuff here.