08/06/2021
With summer around the corner, it’s a good time to remember we don’t need to entertain our kids.
We are a society afraid of boredom. We are addicted to entertainment and the stimulation of certain neuro centers in the brain. We are losing the ability to just be.
Studies have shown that boredom stimulates problem solving areas of our brains that cannot be accessed in any other way. Boredom begets creativity and new thought pathways.
When we deny our children their God-given right to boredom, we are restricting their development.
Do you remember the hours you spent in boredom as a child? We would daydream in the waiting room, stare at the dust motes dancing in the sunlight, invent new games, draw, read, create, research. We were building important neuro pathways. Did we whine to our parents that we were bored? Of course! But we quickly learned that this would only lead to chores or being forced outside regardless of temperature or weather.
When we had a question, there was no Google. We had to ask another person, look it up in a book, or, gasp, ruminate on it until we found the answer within our own brains. We developed common sense and logic, because we were experiencing the world firsthand and engaging our problem solving.
So, don’t be afraid of boredom! Every generation before this one has had to learn to live with it. And they have benefited because of it.
Give your children the gift of boredom.
🖼: In Hard Luck by John G. Brown 1904
