A mum-of-three revealed her secret to parenting is letting her kids have a "whatever makes you happy hour" every day.<br /><br />Jessi Meeks, 31, allows her children to do absolutely anything for an hour of the day so she and her husband, Tyler Meeks, 39, can get some time to themselves.<br /><br />Jessi says the children tend to "pick the messiest option available" and activities range from painting to playing in the rain<br /><br />However the former teacher said the "clean up is worth it" as it allows "adult quality time" within her marriage.<br /><br />Jessi, from Georgia, US, said: "We've been doing it since we had our second son, who is now three. <br /><br />"My husband gets home around four so we started letting the kids do whatever they wanted so we could have our adult conversation for a little bit.<br /><br />"We sit and have a drink and talk whilst the kids are running around like wild animals. Our main focus is quality time.<br /><br />"The kids tend to pick the messiest option available. They don't actually know that the hour has a name but they've seemed to pick up on the idea.<br /><br />"If it's raining they play in the rain. They love arts and crafts and it tends to get messy. Sometimes they'll just listen to music and dance around."<br /><br />The only rule of the hour is that the children are not allowed to watch TV.<br /><br />Jessi recalled the messiest hour to date where her children painted themselves from head to toe in non-washable acrylic paint.<br /><br />It left her three children - Cannon, four, Baker, three, and Sophie, one - stained for days.<br /><br />Jessi said: "I always keep my Amazon package boxes for them to paint so I thought they were painting that.<br /><br />"Turns out they all decided to paint their bodies instead.<br /><br />"I didn't realise it was non-washable acrylic paint and they were covered from head to toe.<br /><br />"It took days to get the stains off - their toenails still have paint on."<br /><br />Despite the big clean ups, Jessi says she would recommend the strategy to any parent.<br /><br />She said: "I think more people should try it. Developmentally giving them free rein to play gives them confidence and helps them learn their boundaries.<br /><br />"The other benefit is that it lets me and my husband have our own conversations. It's beneficial for the kids to see us prioritise each other.<br /><br />"As much as they know we love them more than anything in the world, it's important for them to understand they're not the only piece in our family puzzles.<br /><br />"It's important for them to see a healthy relationship between their parents too."
