‘Yes Day’ recently started streaming on Netflix, and it is a fun and emotion-filled movie that the whole family is sure to love. We were able to sit down with Jennifer Garner, who plays Allison Torres in the movie, in an intimate Zoom interview; and it turns out she has actually been doing Yes Days (yes, in real life!) with her kids for nine years now.
In case you have no idea what a “Yes Day” is, it’s basically a trend where parents have to say “yes” to any request their kids have for an entire day. A scary thought for parents, I know.
YES DAY. (L-R): JENNIFER GARNER as ALLISON TORRES, EVERLY CARGANILLA as ELLIE TORRES, EDGAR RAMIREZ as CARLOS TORRES. Cr: MATT KENNEDY/NETFLIX © 2021
Jennifer says that she is relieved that her kids aren’t as crazy as the kids in the movie – watch ‘Yes Day’ now to see why this is such a relief! – and that they’re much more simple. “As they’ve gotten older, our Yes Days have gotten more and more about torturing me and less and less about just breaking rules,” she shares.
“So, for example, they do actually do my makeup and make me look crazy and they do actually make me go out like that and they know as they’ve gotten a little bit older that I’m more scared of heights than I ever was when I was younger. And so, for example, they made me hold onto this wire at this place and I was pulled up and up and up – a full story high! – and it was a slide that goes straight down and out. And they made me do it.” She recalls that she wanted to back out when she was at the top but they reminded her that it was Yes Day, so she had to let go and fall down a full story. “They torture me in their own ways,” she adds.
YES DAY (L-R): BEHIND THE SCENES with DIRECTOR, MIGUEL ARTETA, JENNA ORTEGA as KATIE TORRES, JENNIFER GARNER as ALLISON TORRES. Cr: JOHN P. JOHNSON/NETFLIX © 2021
Even during the pandemic, Jennifer and her family pushed through with their Yes Day, though she did have to plan a little bit more than she normally would. This time around, she rented a big bounce house with a water slide and put it in their backyard. Apparently, she stayed on it the whole time! “If they wanted me to go down head first, I did. If they wanted be on my lap, I let them. Whatever it was, I just said yes,” she shares. That aside, her family also went for drive-through food, had a picnic, had ice cream and waffles for breakfast, and stayed up late watching TV. For that, Jennifer went the extra mile and even put it up against a wall with a projector. “We just had fun. It worked.”
YES DAY (L): EVERLY CARGANILLA as ELLIE TORRES. Cr: JOHN P. JOHNSON/NETFLIX © 2021
Jennifer points out that the goal of the movie isn’t necessarily to get parents to do Yes Days with their kids, though. “The goal with this movie isn’t actually to tell parents what to do, but merely to show people that being a parent is really hard,” she states. “It’s hard to be married and to hold onto the joy in a marriage. It’s hard to stay yourself and hold onto your own sense of fun. And it’s hard to have kids and to keep being the fun, cool mom that they deserve when you’re trying so hard to make everybody get where they need to go with clean teeth and the right homework. ‘Yes Day’ is just a really fun way to just let it go for a day and let it be messy and have a good time.”
Still, I couldn’t help but wonder whether I should start incorporating Yes Days into my life as a parent. Is this something you would do? Or have you already done it? Share your stories with us! Email me at angeline.wheninmanila@gmail.com or send me a direct message at When in Manila Angeline on Facebook. Interact with the team and join the WhenInManila.com Community at WIM Squad! Join our WhenInManila.com community on Viber, as well!
