Good Days and Bad Days

Today is Day 1 of the school holidays.

You’d think that with no school, Emma’s mind would be fresh, ready to conquer math, and eager to breeze through her worksheets.

Boy, was I wrong.

She took one full hour to finish five pages.

I sat there, staring at her, trying to reverse-engineer the disaster in real time.

• Was it the weekend? Did we have too much fun?

• Was it me? Not being strict enough?

• Was it because she’s my daughter and that makes everything 10 times harder?

No idea.

I pulled out my magic trick—firm voice, serious face, authority mode ON.It worked.

For ten questions.

Then, she went right back to the stunned look™.

The Hard Truth About Bad Days

After years of teaching, I tried to analyze the situation and arrived at a very deep, research-backed, intellectual conclusion:

👉 It was just a bad day.

That’s it. That’s the explanation.

And yes, I felt bad. I lost my patience. I got frustrated because this was the sixth time she was doing the same worksheet. She was well-rested. There was no excuse.

Yet… there we were.

So, dear parents, let’s not forget: No matter how many months we’ve been doing this, no matter how strong the habits, no matter how well-rested they are…

Kids have bad days, too.

And we lose our temper because—guess what?—we’re human.

So What Did I Do?

I gave her a discount (fewer pages).I let her continue with her playdate. I told myself, we fight again tomorrow.

Because learning isn’t about one perfect day. It’s about showing up, over and over, until even the bad days add up to something good.

And that’s what we’ll do.

Tomorrow, we try again.