Chapter Two: The Bad Yucky Monday

The Bad Yucky Monday teaches children they can create their own mood! The Creative Creation is part of a series of free Christian stories for kids brought to you by The Kid’s Book Group.  The series brings Bible stories for kids into real life situations in a fun and entertaining way.

The Bad Yucky Monday

Tommy was flying over the hill tops on Grandma and Grandpa’s farm. Every time his feet touched the ground, he would give one strong push with his little legs and soar away like a bird. He laughed and giggled all through the happy blue sky around the barn, the henhouse and the pond!  “Wake up Tommy,” Daddy said. Tommy flew toward the ground, thinking he might crash, but landed safely in his bed. “Wake up.”

Tommy looked around his room and rubbed his sleepy eyes. He knew he had heard his daddy’s voice, but no one was with him now. “Mondays are so yucky,” he said and climbed out of bed. “I was having so much fun, too!” Without brushing his teeth or changing his clothes, he shuffled out of his room, down the hall and to the top of the stairs where he could hear Mommy and Daddy talking quietly in their living room.

“I don’t know what to do about Tommy,” Mommy said to Daddy. “He seemed so sad over the weekend and last night I heard him crying.” Mommy was sitting in the lazy chair with her feet propped up. She had been there all weekend and didn’t spend much time with Tommy at all. Her doctor said she needed rest, so she sat in her chair, reading, drawing and writing letters. Daddy had been very busy finishing up the nursery for their new baby girl. Tommy had just about had enough!

“Baby, baby, baby!” Tommy walked back down the hall, into his room and closed the door. “Baby!” He picked up his crayons and some paper and sat down at his little desk. He wasn’t allowed to play with the Oogie Boogies anymore, so Mommy had bought him some new crayons. The old ones were broken, mixed up and even a little dirty.

Without even thinking about it and before too much time had passed, Tommy had drawn a very nice picture of his happy little family. There was something missing in the picture, but it didn’t matter. He took his sticky poster stuff and stuck the picture on the outside of his bedroom door. Then, he sat in his own little lazy chair by his own little window and stuck his lip out as far as it would go. “Mondays are so yucky!”

Soon, he heard Mommy outside his door in the hall. Then she shuffled quietly away. The front door closed loudly and he knew his Daddy was gone to work for the day. “Tommy!” Mommy called him for breakfast. He was very hungry, but he really didn’t want to eat. He wanted to stay in his room and think about yucky Mondays and yucky babies and yucky doctors and stuff. “Tommy, come and eat!”

Mommy had called him twice, so he knew he had better go. Soon, he was at the kitchen table, eating his oatmeal in silence while Mommy tried really hard to cheer him up. “I’m sorry I can’t take you to the park today, but the baby…” Tommy’s lip stuck out a little further. “What would you like to do at home today? Do you want to help me fold the baby’s…” His lip almost touched the table.

“Mondays are so yucky,” Tommy finally said and Mommy gave him a funny look.

“Since when?” she replied. “You’re always happy, Tommy.”

“Since murmur murmur murmur mur.” Tommy was staring at his house shoes now and murmuring softly back to Mommy.

“What did you say,” Mommy asked. “I can’t hear you when you murmur.”

“Mudder mudder mudder mud.” Tommy said. He picked up his bowl, rinsed it in the sink and placed it in the dishwasher. Daddy had been teaching him how to help Mommy with the chores. Mostly, he didn’t mind, but this morning he really didn’t want to help Mommy do anything.

Mommy let out a deep sigh, grabbed Tommy’s arm gently and gave him a big hug. “I saw your new picture,” she said. “It is very pretty, but it’s the first picture you’ve ever drawn that I don’t really like.” Tommy looked even more upset, but before he could say anything, she continued. “I don’t like pictures of my family that do not have you in them, Tommy. Didn’t you read my letter yesterday?”

“No,” he replied. “I didn’t want to read it.”

“Well, that’s what I thought. Will you please read it for me today?”

“Ok,” he said and walked out of the kitchen, up to his room and picked up the piece of blue construction paper she had folded in half and placed on his desk. He opened it, looked at it, smiled and ran back downstairs to his mom.

“It’s a very pretty picture Mommy, but what does it say?”

Mommy pointed to each person in the picture. “That’s me, that’s Daddy, that’s the baby, and that’s you.”

“I know that,” Tommy said. His Monday was starting to feel a little less yucky. “But what do those letters over my head spell?”

“They spell ‘My favorite Tommy in the whole, wide world!’” Somehow Mommy had known what was bothering him all along. Somehow she had made him feel better. “You will always be my best, best Tommy and I will always, always, love you the same.”

“How can you love me the same and love this baby girl?”

“I have enough love for both of my children and their Daddy too! I have enough love for all of you, Tommy. I have Jesus in my heart.”

Tommy’s lip shrunk back into place and he replaced his little pout with a big, big smile. “I have Jesus too,” he said, “so I have enough love for you and for Daddy.”

“Tommy?”

“Ok, I have enough love for you and for Daddy and for this baby girl too.” There, he had finally said it. Tommy felt much, much better as the bad yucky Monday blues he had created for himself went away. He hugged his mommy one more time and bounced up the stairs to brush his teeth.

Copyright 2012 by Denise Davidson Mistich