Teaching About Emotions – It’s OK To Have A Bad Day

Yesterday was one of those days.  Almost everything that could go wrong while flying from one side of the country to the other did. All day I kept thinking about how this was my own real life version of Judith Viorst’s  classic Alexander and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good ,Very Bad Day. I kept telling myself and my kids each time I called that some days really are just like that and it’s OK to be frustrated, disappointed and mad that I wasn’t home when I said I would be. I was frustrated, disappointed and mad too.  I had a post planned for today but I am too exhausted to finish it and all I want to do today is snuggle my kids and wait for the airline to drop off my suitcase that somehow didn’t make it on to my flight with me. Let’s just hope it’s not in Australia.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst was another childhood favorite that I have enjoyed sharing with my own son. This book is beautiful, even though it may take a few reads to soo it’s not a story about a whining little boy so much a lesson that sometimes things do not go our way. Days can suck. It’s just the way it is. As a child I related to Alexander’s feelings of frustration and things being unfair. How often to you hear a child say “No Fair!” probably a lot. This book taps into that feeling, being little is hard but just because you are mad, or your day was bad doesn’t mean you get your way. Great book to talk about anger and frustration with your child, and it’s funny too