[Seek] Peace in the Boredom

[Lent 15]

"I'm bored."

It's never a simple statement. There's a tone to it when a child says it. Teens have a special way of insinuating parental blame for this unfortunate circumstance.

When one of my children tells me they're bored, my response is usually, "Wonderful! How EXCITING! Just think of the endless possibilities laying before you!"

They somehow don't appreciate this reaction to their serious plight.

It's ok for children to be bored. Really. We don't need to plan out every moment of every day or plan things to entertain them or hold their interest from dawn to dark.

Boredom breeds creativity. Rarely will a child allow themselves to be bored forever. They will come up with something with which to occupy their time. It can help if parents provide entertaining and educational opportunities - board and card games, puzzles, books, hula hoops, poi, art supplies.

With parental assistance, however, boredom can be transformed into amazing things. Especially if the parent says yes to things they think too out of the ordinary or too fantastical.

My children have disassembled a piano, brown-papered our living room floor, built room-enveloping forts, built fires for marshmallow roasting, created a mudslide to slide on in our yard, made potion bottles, cooked meals they saw on a cooking show, taught themselves special effects makeup, painted fanciful things on the walls of their rooms, written and performed plays, and colored and cut/shaved each others' hair - and my hair! Their new thing is going on walks to collect items they find along the way, bring them home, and make them into art.

They've done and do all of these things less because we say yes, but more because we don't stand in their way, trusting them to ask for help when it's needed, participating when asked, backing off when not needed.

And because we respond to their declarations of nothing to do with anticipation of extraordinary escapades.