Sure, we don’t want our children to be bored for huge chunks of the day, but studies have shown that being overscheduled, over-busy, and over-stimulated can result in irritability, anxiousness, physical complaints, sleep issues, and a feeling of being overwhelmed.
A bit of boredom actually helps children become more creative and to come up with more puzzle-solving and problem-solving ideas on their own. In fact, studies in both the Creativity Research Journal and the Academy of Management Discoveries found that after participants completed a boring task, they showed much more creativity when tackling a more interesting one.
Is there a difference between taking it easy and boredom? Of course. And we all need to have relaxation time, even our children. If your children are restlessly seeking out something to do and feeling unhappy, then their brains are not being stimulated enough to reach a healthy baseline level of stimulation. The brain itself will actually try to create stimulation, resulting in the uncomfortable nagging, negative feeling of true boredom. That can be a good thing. It’s a call to action which leads to opportunities to be creative.
The take-away here is to help your children to be a little bored. I know, that sounds counterintuitive, but if they are used to being constantly entertained, they won’t learn to entertain themselves, and that’s a very important life-skill. So what can you do as a parent? Build in downtime between scheduled activities and leave them to their own devices during that time. Then gradually increase the length of that self-directed time to something reasonable, say 60-90 minutes for younger children and up to 3 hours for the older ones. It may be a benefit to let them know that at the end of that time there will be something special or fun that you have planned for them.
It is a good idea to make sure to have books, puzzles, and loads of art and crafting supplies on hand, in a place that is readily available to them. Maybe even a musical instrument or two. With the availability of plentiful ingredients for creative fun, your children will figure out, for themselves, how to fill this unstructured time in a healthy way. Just to clarify, avoid letting your children fill their downtime staring at a screen. Let them create their own entertainment rather than be fed content. Get their brains working!
So the next time your child says to you, “I’m bored!”, think to yourself “Oh, good!”
