Educational Disappointments

It was just one of those days.  The four years old was lying moaning on the couch the whole day due to a lingering flu.  The almost three years old in quest for additional  attention and in need of companionship, due to her sister's invalid status,  was using every trick in her repertoire, and she is very creative and dramatic, to get the aforementioned attention.  The six month old chose that particular time to change his stripes, i.e. sleeping and behavioral patterns and was also demanding to be held constantly, refusing to go to sleep unless... insert a long list of immutable unlesses here.  The two older ones still had plenty of energy left over after getting the required things done and in general also wanted some exctitement, attention, etc.  The house was naturally a wreck under the circumstances.  Finally, we had a Chanukah activity planned for the evening, which everyone was looking forward to, even the infirm and the disenchanted.  Two frazzled parents at last managed to get the candles lit, find requisite number of  shoes, convince everyone to dress in weather appropriate gear, pack  the little ones in the stroller, argue persuasively about many contentious issues that came up with their equally frazzled, cranky and  moody offspring.  And so  we went on our planned outing.  It was a total disaster.  So the two exhausted, frazzled and dare we say, furious parents at last got their at this point even more cranky and moody and disappointed kids home and off to bed.  It was just one of those days.  I couldn't help feeling that the day and everyone's reactions to the events that transpired will not go down in history as one of my successes.  The older kids kept reiterating their disappointment with this and with that.  I kept thinking though that there is a lesson there somewhere in all of this mess, besides opting out of such activities when we are clearly not up to it.  And then it occurred to me that the disappointment itself is very educational.  It's built into the fabric of life, so there must be a reason.  Yes, things often don't  go smoothly but that forces us to think about things, to analyze, to be creative, to look for solutions.  Disappointment just happens to be good for us!!!  I guess the disastrous day wasn't so disastrous after all, in fact it was quite educational :)