Judith Viorst: When Your Child Has A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Very Bad Days

As an aspiring young writer, Judith Viorst endured a few “very bad days” of her own “I tried to get my poems published starting at age 7,” she reports. But it took 30 years before that happened! By the time her youngest son was in preschool, she was something of an expert on bad days—and he was too.

“Alexander had more than his share of bad days growing up,” she says. “I mean, all kids trip, fall, bleed, get mad. He seemed to do it more often than most kids. He came limping home one day from preschool, having fallen off a chair during story time resulting in a knee injury. He’s the only person I've ever met who could get injured by wiggling so much during story time—not playing soccer. Story time! That’s my Alexander.”

Cheer up, Alexander!

One day, to cheer up her little one, Ms. Viorst went into her office and wrote a story of a delightful child having such a bad day he was ready to move to Australia. She named her title character Alexander, in her son’s honor.

And soon discovered that was a bad idea.

“Initially he was outraged,” Viorst admits today. “Why was I picking on him? Why was I giving HIM this awful day? Why not give it to [oldest brother] Nick? Or give it to [middle brother] Anthony!” Eventually young Alexander was wooed by the idea of seeing his name in giant letters on the cover of a book. And that’s how, in 1972, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day showed up in bookstores everywhere.

Days Get Better With Time

Fast-forward 40-plus years, and that little cheer-up project has sold over 4 million copies, been inducted into the Picture Book Hall of Fame—and been adapted into a hit Disney family film on Blu-ray, Disney Movies Anywhere and Digital HD February 10, 2015. Best of all, it seems that the real Alexander (now in his late 40s) has learned to love his mother’s ode to his sometimes-difficult life.

At the movie premiere, Judith Viorst was accompanied by her now-grown-up son Alexander and his wife Marla. “There was a scene on the red carpet,” Viorst says, “of a hug between Ed Oxenbould—the terrific young actor who played Alexander—and the adult Alexander. That, I found quite, quite adorable.”

Parents Can Listen, Laugh, Hope

“Listen to their laments with patience and sympathy,” Viorst says. “Remind them that everybody has bad days. Tell them—humorously, if possible—about a bad day in your own life. Point out that a bad day is exactly that: a bad day. Not a bad week, or month, or year, or life. And a bad day WILL come to an end. Ask what you can do, within reason, to help them to feel better and, if it's within reason, do it.”

“Everybody has a bad day and because it’s a bad day, it has limits. It has a beginning and an end. There’s a container concept to it in that maybe tomorrow will be better. So, I would hope that people would feel that they are going to have a better day coming up.”

The Best Is Yet To Come

The author of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is now in her mid-80s. She’s survived many a bad day, and lived many more good ones as well. “The most important thing in my life, and my work,” she reflects now, “is connection—finding those moments, or more, of shared experience with another person, with other people.” Those are times she knows well.

And Judith Viorst sees still better days ahead. “My big dreams still include playing the piano, speaking French fluently (or at all), and understanding black holes.” That may not make a great plot for a Disney movie, but sure sounds like a happy way to live a life…even in Australia.