Boredom is part of life. In my experience, boredom is a major catalyst for creativity and ingenuity in small children.
We’ve all had those Christmas mornings or birthdays when our kids tear through a mountain of gifts only to spend the following hours playing forts with cardboard boxes.
I have no interest in curating an entertainment schedule for my children. First of all, lazy. But more importantly, I believe that without boredom, the simple and silly joys of childhood can get lost.
Children are brilliant, but they need space to exercise their curiosity. Take bath time, for example. In our house, we don’t have many complex toys in the tub, but my kids spend copious amounts of time studying the speed of water being poured from cups into other cups. Seriously. They’d do this for hours if I let them. This unstructured play time is brain development gold, and we don’t build enough time like this into our days.
As a society, we really underestimate the power and intelligence of kids. If we encourage them to create with minimal guidance and, yes, let them experience boredom, it’s amazing what they can do to learn new things and entertain themselves.
For this reason and space concerns, I try to keep the number of toys that enter our house to a minimum. Half my kids’ toys serve no purpose other than to be dumped all over the floor. There’s nothing I hate more about being a parent than toys. My kid never missed a toy I tossed out or played with a toy consistently for more than a week before forgetting about it or attempting to destroy it.
When it comes to schedules and structures, it’s my natural inclination to go overboard. I like things well planned and well-executed.
