Today was the worst day of my life!!!!!!!!!!!!! How many times have I heard that from my children!? There were days when I was with them, all day.. and I saw them playing and laughing and having lots of fun.. and one thing happened.. ONE and "IT is the worst day of my life" was what I would hear. Is it drama, over doing it.. or did that one thing overshadow everything else from the day? I am a firm believer that most of us need to learn the "glass half full instead of half empty".. I don't think that outlook is born into everyone.. Maybe not even most of us. So how do we talk to our kids so that we can let them know the bad stuff doesn't have to ruin the day.. to focus on all the good that happened instead of the bad?
When my oldest was in early elementary, grade 1 or 2, I decided that I would try and refocus all of us. We decided we would tell something funny that happened that day. The twins were too little to participate.. but I made sure I always had something funny and interesting to tell her that happened to me during the day, or that I saw. It really helped our dialogue and I think it really helped her to pay attention throughout the day to the good things.. or funny, so she could share it with me on the way home from school. Those giggles we had after a long day sure helped. We still talked about the bad things that happened, but after having a laugh we were able to focus more realistically on where those bad things figured into her day.
