Never say, "I'm Bored".....

I used to entertain myself with a rock when I was little....and I'm not that old either.  Remember back in the 1970s and 1980s when we were kids (if applicable) when we played with whatever we could find and stayed out for hours running around in the neighborhood?  Then came Atari's Pong, and I still remember the delight in my eyes as my best friend and eye pinged and ponged back and forth on her black and white TV screen.  I think that was the beginning of the end in a way.  And now my kids tell me they're bored.....so here's what I told them (and myself).

I can honestly not remember myself being bored as a child....okay maybe as a teenager but not before.  So I asked myself why?  And why is it my kids were frequently plopping down wherever, releasing a big sigh...and here it comes out of their mouth....."I'm bored".  Why?  This is what I came up with...

Because we overschedule our kids so much these days with a few sports, music lessons, church groups, pottery class and everything in between.

Kids have all these activities handed to them on a platter that they never have to come up with anything on their own.

Here we are thinking we are encouraging creativity by all these wonderful things, when we are in fact hindering it to an extent.

We continue to feed this barrage of "instant activity" to our kids every year, like clockwork, all through their formative years.

 So what's my new strategy these days?

I say, "Good, be bored" and walk away and back to whatever I was doing.  Do this enough times, and they will stop saying "I'm bored" to you.

Another alternative, is to give them a chore to do whenever they say they're bored.  "Wonderful son, you asked just in time!  Please carry this laundry basket upstairs for me!"  After a few iterations of this, see how quickly can then find some activity on their own that will keep them entertained.

I also like to tell stories of what I did when I was little...the kids actually ask for this stuff at bedtime.  I am hoping that gives them ideas that will eventually blossom on their own.  That was confirmed last week when my 11 year old built a fortress for his Army men in the garden...made out of readily-available chestnuts and mud....cool.

Try it sometime (actually, more than once...you need to make it repetitive and habit-forming) and see what happens.  Decide to drop at least one activity this year.  You'll also be amazed at the positive change in your child.  Please don't post below, and tell me what a genius your kid is now because you have developed their left or right brain....I am not saying to NOT expose them to different activities or opportunities....as with anything else, I am saying that life needs to be balanced.

Do you have any thoughts on the subject?  Do you think you agree or disagree?  Or do you have another interesting idea?