“Mom, I’m bored.”

I’ve been a parent for the past 26 years, and I swear if I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that sentence come out of my kids’ mouths I could probably fund a trip to Hawaii for our entire family. (okay, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but I have heard it more times than I can count!)

“You’re bored?” I say,  “Only boring people get bored.”  

Of course that comment never goes over well.

I know my kids are not boring people, but I just want them to think before they claim that they are bored. I want them to know that there is always something to do; something to read, something to create, something to organize, something to clean.

“How about I find something for you to clean?” I say, “I bet you won’t be bored then.”

That suggestion never goes over well, either.

Kids of today are constantly stimulated by screen time, social media, and video games. And when those things are not available to them (read: when mom takes them away) they have trouble coming up with things to keep themselves from being “bored” — I think they have become too dependent on being entertained and have forgotten how to use their own imaginations and creativity to entertain themselves.

Kids think being bored is a bad thing. But it’s not! Mental downtime for kids (long enough for them to claim to be bored) is good for them.  There is something to be said for being still and just being inside of your own mind. I think kids of today need more of this.

Coloring is an excellent way to be inside of your own mind. Aside from choosing the color and staying inside the lines, coloring doesn’t take much thought, and that frees up your mind to think about other things. Or, to not really think about anything at all, to just be in the moment. As a child one of my favorite things to do was to color. In fact, it’s still one of my favorite things to do! I color with my kids all the time. It is such a calming and tranquil activity.

And there are even  adult coloring books which I think is a great thing, because let’s face it – adulting is hard! It’s stressful. My adult children and even my older teens have a few of these coloring books. They are a great activity not only for being creative, but also for relaxing and just letting the mind chill for a bit. Moms, are you having a hard day with the littles? Grab a coloring book, pick a page with a cool design, and get to work coloring that baby. Instant stress relief. I promise! It works!

And what about day dreaming?  Day dreaming gets a bad rap because it’s been associated with not paying attention in school, but day dreaming is so important. Let your kids be bored so they can sit and daydream a little bit. Did you know that your best thinking occurs when your mind wanders? I read that here and thought it was very interesting!

And what’s the deal with all the little kids in restaurants staring down at their iPads? Do you guys notice this, too? It’s everywhere these days. When I was a kid, I didn’t have any electronic devices to entertain me at a restaurant. I sat there at the table and was included in the conversation. I actually learned to have meaningful conversations with the adults around me! And if I was left out of a conversation and I found myself being “bored” … I just came up with educational ways to entertain myself. I doodled on my napkin (art) and I put ice in my mouth and counted to see how long it took before it melted (science) and I learned to hit the fork in just the right spot so that it flew up and over my head and landed perfectly onto the table behind me. (math? science? I’m sure it was educational somehow!)

Okay, so maybe an iPad at a restaurant isn’t always such a bad thing. I don’t want my post to be the reason forks are flying at restaurants. Someone could lose an eye!

All kidding aside, going forward I’m going to make it a point that as a family we “switch off” more during our days, and that we do more of doing nothing to give our minds the chance to wander. My kids need this. I need this! I guess we will be one big, “boring” family — but that’s a good thing!