Harrison and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Harrison woke up on Monday and it was raining. He doesn’t like the rain. He gets wet in the rain. And when he got to the table to eat breakfast, he was greeted with a waffle and hash brown patty instead of pancakes. Waffles give him heart burn.

“Waffles don’t give you heart burn.” I responded.

“They do today”. He answered.

On the way out the door I gave him a different umbrella, it’s doesn’t open automatically – the other one opens automatically.  The other one has to spokes sticking out, I don’t want him poking some kid’s eye out. I got a heavy sigh and frown.

At school, he got in trouble for not listening – “twice”, he announced.

“I was telling friend #1 not to sit on the square because something yucky was on it, eeww! Then the teacher told me I needed to listen.”

“Later on friend #2 wouldn’t move forward, he’s supposed to move forward! I told him he has to move forward – the teacher told me I have to stop talking and listen.”

During recess Harrison fell and scraped his knee. He told me that it REALLY stung but “there are only two reasons you can go to the nurse -  if your bone is sticking out this way (as he twists his wrist into an unnatural position) or if you’re bleeding”.

“I wasn’t bleeding.” He huffs.

Then at the end of the day friend #3 jumped in a puddle, kicked water toward him and got his socks wet. He had to walk home in wet socks.

“I hate wet socks!”

At home I sat down on the sofa next to him to listen to his day assuring him that we all have bad days, he burst into tears and blurted out, “And now I can’t find the paper fortune from my cookie and it was really good!”

“…I was kind to that little boy in the store this weekend and helped him find his mommy and then he smiled at me and my fortune said, ‘be kind to others and kindness come back to you’… BUT NOW I CAN’T REMEMBER IT AND I LOST IT!”

(we found the fortune under the dining table.)

Later, as I started making dinner, he was jumping up and down behind the counter, playing peek-a-boo with me... Until he misjudged a jump and bumped his head underneath the counter.

Not too long after that as he hid under the table, pouting about yet another indiscretion, Daddy came over to inform him it was time for homework. A short drama ensued. We told him he had to come out and do homework or else and as he crawled out in his grumpy state, he stood up too soon and banged his head again – “in the same place!”.

“I’m really having a BAD DAY!” he cried.

We sat down on the sofa to regroup and pray. After a few more tears, I played him a Nina Simone song– reminding him that tomorrow will be a new day.
God and Nina, that made him feel better.

The G.I.D. told him that his mantra for the day was,
“Rainy Days and Mondays Always Get Me Down".
And even though it was lost on the six-year-old – I smiled.

At the dinner table I read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Harrison laughed and happily declared, “At least I didn’t have THAT BAD of a day!”

And with that, bedtime was a breeze.

 

I hope it doesn’t rain next Monday…