Enjoy Doing Nothing.
Why boredom is good for children.
In today’s non-stop world, boredom is seen as a bad thing.
It can lead to us over scheduling children's time, and not allowing them enough opportunities for child-led play. But far from being a bad thing, periods of boredom, where children have to rely on themselves for entertainment, are essential to a healthy childhood.
So...embrace the ordinary and let kids get bored! :)
Wait, what?!
I promise I am not crazy! Here's how your child will benefit from being bored:
1. Boredom encourages imagination and creativity
When children are left to their own imagination, they’re forced to be more creative and imaginative in finding ways to amuse themselves.
Giving them opportunities to try things of their own volition builds their sense of discovery and curiosity and helps them explore what brings them joy.
Children can to learn to take initiative and think of ways to occupy themselves that are not dictated by someone else.
2. Boredom teaches resilience & confidence
Resilience is a very importance life skill that cannot be taught, children need to experience it to learn the tools that will help them be successful in life. This term refers to children developing a ‘have a go’ attitude and not being put off when things are tough. Being bored and having free time to try things out without the fear of failure is essential if a child is to develop this life skill.
Everyone wants to believe they’re good at everything, but children who never experience failure don’t know how to deal with it when it arises or to grow from mistakes.
3. Boredom develops problem-solving skills
Do your children expect you to come up with a solution to their problems or promptly help them when they cannot do something?
Well, then stop intervening, because being bored and stuck with a problem will help them develop their problem-solving skills.
They might find incredibly creative ways to solve a simple issue, that, if you had done it for them, it would never have happened.
I know it is hard and it takes time, but you will be encouraging them to take initiative and develop problem-solving skills, as they have to rely on themselves to tackle the any problem in the future.
4. Boredom helps children form relationships
Having unstructured time to play with other children will help your child develop interpersonal skills that are becoming lost to this technology obsessed generation. When children are given time and space with nothing to distract them, they learn to negotiate and collaborate with each other and develop social skills.
Learning to communicate, make eye contact and read body language can only be learned from experience, and from making mistakes.
5. Boredom creates a sense of belonging
As well as having time to think, unstructured downtime gives children a greater sense of community. If children are always busy with some focused activity, they take their surroundings for granted. It’s important that they have the chance to engage with their environment so they feel a sense of belonging to where they live.
6. Boredom makes childhood happier (yep, I said it!)
When adults talk about their childhood memories, no one ever mentions anything material, it’s always the simple things they remember: connections, laughter and nature.
All the activities that we think are making childhood richer are just getting in the way of a simple but contented life.
How to encourage your child to make the best of boredom?
It will be difficult at first because they won't know how to do it, and you’ll have to be their imagination coach, but once the spark has ignited, trust me, it will get better!
Have a weekly activity detox. ‘Nominate one day a week where the family has no structured activities, and make it up as you go along.
Give them a creative, open-ended task like building an obstacle course in the garden or setting up a treasure hunt.
Provide low-tech toys. If you have the space, collecting things like offcuts of wood and fabric, cotton reels, junk modelling resources and old clothes from the charity shop will give your child endless opportunities for free play.
Don’t mind the mess. Everything can be cleared away, and you can make it a condition that your child has to help tidy up afterwards.
GET OUTDOORS! Take your child to open spaces and resist the urge to jump in and protect them.
Be a good role model. Wait as long as you can before introducing smartphones and other devices to your child and model healthy attitudes to technology yourself: you can’t insist that your child puts their phone down if you’re always on yours.
Create a sense of community. If you live in an area where it’s safe for children to play outside, get a group of parents together and make a local playgroup. It’ll help develop a great sense of belonging for you and your child.
Get Inspired:
The Joy of Doing Nothing by Rachel Jonat Do Less: A Revolutionary Approach to Time & Energy Management for Busy Moms by Kate Northrup
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