Shonda Rhimes feels much "happier" since devoting more time to her children.
Shonda Rhimes
The 'Scandal' creator - who has daughters Emerson, Beckett and Harper - has followed her new year's resolution to say 'yes' to more time with her girls.
She said: "The most significant thing that I think really changed my life was saying yes to playing with my kids and letting myself play.
"That really changed the quality of my life. It's made me a happier person. It changes the quality of your day."
However, the 45-year-old television producer and writer insists she didn't let her kids in on her plan to say yes to more things this year for fear they would ask her for anything they wanted.
She told PEOPLE magazine: "I didn't tell [Harper] because she probably would have started asking for things if she knew it was the year of yes."
Meanwhile, Shonda previously revealed she has no plans to tie the knot after penning a wedding storyline for one of her 'Grey's Anatomy' characters Cristina.
She shared: "I was seriously dating somebody and I was like, I don't want to do this. I guess I had been secretly feeling that way and writing it for Cristina. We're all so conditioned to want it, I felt like there must be something wrong with me. But the minute I said it out loud to my family, it was fantastic.
"Now if somebody says, 'Are you looking for that?' I say, 'Nope, looking for a boyfriend, not a husband. And there's a freedom to that. There's no pressure if you're not looking for it."
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