Have you ever felt so tired at the end of the day that you almost can’t fall asleep? The tired I am thinking about is not the ‘wow, I got so much accomplished today’ kind of tired. The tired I am talking about is the ‘I forgot to send in lunch for my son, the dishwasher flooded the kitchen, I accidentally hit “reply all” on an irretrievable email that included my boss, my daugher got an ‘F’ on her math test, I burned dinner, and I tried to use my Bj’s card at Costco before I rear ended the neighbor’s car’ kind of day. We all know how it feels and how easy it is to pull the covers up over our heads and resign to stay in bed forever. We are grown-ups however, and know that is just not reality.
Children have these kinds of days. It may not seem to us that they can have a difficult day. I mean, what have they got to worry about, right? You would be surprised. Even our 1 year olds are frustrated when they cannot accomplish a task that they have attempted. They try and try and see everyone doing it. It is so easy for us to say “it’s ok, you will get it, you just need a little help!”
There are two reasons I am writing about this topic. The first is to encourage you to use your own help talk. We usually know what to say to make other’s feel better. We have the insight, experience and words to tell ourselves how to get over a bad day, a failed attempt, a bad decision. Tell yourself, what you would tell someone else in the same situation. And, ask for help. We offer help, but often forget to ask for it. People really do like to help. You could actually make someone’s day.
The other reason I am pointing out that children have bad days is because we often cast their troubles aside. “He’s a kid, he has no idea what the real world is like.” In point, this is his real life. While some people can say that using your Bjs card at Costco is really no big deal, it was not them in-line rifling through their wallet in front of the anxious coupon clipper behind you. And, perhaps that Costco incident would not be so bad if it were not sandwiched between a bunch of other “failures”. Children are people, people have bad days. Acknowledge them.
Remember and remind them… tomorrow is another day. We all get a chance to do better.
Each day we have the opportunity to make a difference. Each night we get a chance to review our work.