My daughter came home from her first day of school, and it hadn’t gone well.

Remembering my own anti-school bias I held when I was her age, I shared some meaningful words of encouragement with her. I told her:

• “It’s not supposed to be fun.”
• “Everyone hates school.”
• “School is a plot to get the kids out of the house so parents can jump on the beds and drink milk right out of the jug.”
• “Don’t plan on playing sick tomorrow. Unless I see blood and brains spilling out of you in the morning, you’re going.”

Okay, that’s not what I said. I thought a few of them, though.

Rather, I listened to her. I tried to encourage her. And I told her that she might have to give it some time to get back into the swing of things.

Fortunately, by the end of her second day, she had already found that things weren’t nearly as bleak as she made them out to be.

As a favor to me–and as a service to others with school age children who might have started off the school year with negative thinking–, my sweet daughter graciously allowed me to film a reenactment of the debrief I had with her after her first and second day of school. We called our little project, All the difference a day makes. Enjoy!