Alexander Days

Ever have one of those days? You know the ones where nothing seems to go right, and you just are feeling so sad about your day. Yep, me too. I call them "Alexander Days" because of one of my favorite books, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst.  I don't remember when I first read Alexander, and I am aware it is written for kids, but it has good lessons for adults too. If you've never read it, you should!  Here is the first page:


I mean, how much worse could the day get? Well, poor Alexander proceeds to not have a toy in his breakfast cereal, to not get the shoes he wants when his brothers get cool shoes, and so on and so forth. His answer to the problem, "I think I'll move to Australia."

Here is what I love about this story:

• We all have Alexander days. Sure, maybe we don't get gum in our hair, and our mom's don't forget to pack us a dessert in our lunch, but we have those days where everything we wanted to happen just doesn't work. Maybe our favorite sports team loses to their rivals (thanks so much Penguins), or you accidentally run into the corner of your bed and it really hurts, A LOT! Maybe you have plans to get so much work done and you keep getting interrupted and what you need is not there. Whatever it is, we all have Alexander days. But as Alexander's mom so wisely says at the end "some days are like that, even in Australia."
• Whining about it doesn't make it better. At no point in the book does Alexander's whining about his bad day even get recognized until the very end at bedtime. Nobody comes along and says "oh poor Alexander, let me fix everything so you never know what it is like to not get everything you want." Nobody forces all the other kids to move so he can have a window seat. The teacher doesn't reward him for his "invisible castle" drawing when there were other kids who actually drew something. He just has to learn that whining doesn't make the day better, it just makes it seem worse.
• Even an Alexander day really isn't that bad. So Alexander has to wear the perfectly good shoes that just don't happen to be his favorite color. He has to learn that sometimes everyone else gets a toy in their breakfast cereal box and you don't, but you still get breakfast cereal! So the Penguins lost to the Flyers... I still have a warm house, and food, and a job, and, well, really everything I had before except the joy of watching the Flyers lose. Some days are just like that. 

So next time you are having a bad day, think of Alexander and remember, some days are just like that, even in Australia. 

Keep it real friends,

HP