The 3 Words You Want
Your Child to Say
This Summer:
“I Am Bored”
Childhood summers aren’t what
they used to be.
Summers were fairly boring in
the ‘80s and in the decades before.
Because more parents were “stay-at-
home,” children weren’t rushed off to
organized activities or to daily sum-
mer camps. Kids weren’t enrolled in
summer school classes to get ahead.
Moms weren’t directing childhood
play or driving their sons and daugh-
ters around town making sure their
offspring were constantly happy and
entertained. Children were bored
and left to figure out how to entertain
themselves during summer break.
With today’s two-career fami-
lies, making arrangements for “what
to do with the kids” during summer
break can be a logistical nightmare
but a necessary challenge.
But, if at all possible, even if only
on the weekends, boredom is what
we need to bring back to childhood
summers today.
Even when a parent is at home,
the long days of summer break feel
daunting, and parents don’t want the
time to be unproductive or wasted
— so they mistakenly schedule their
kids summer break away. Instead of
keeping their sons and daughters
busy, though, they should instead
purposely keep them bored.
So says Amy Carney, author of
Parent on Purpose: A Courageous
Approach to Raising Children in a
Complicated World and mother of
5. She believes hearing a child say “I
Am Bored” this summer is actually
a really good thing for the following
reasons.
Boredom is the solution to
building the critical thinking and
emotional skills that our kids
desperately need.
It’s crucial for parents to create
healthy summer screen habits,
purposely allowing children
time to experience the benefits
of boredom.
Parents can make up a boredom
basket or bucket containing cre-
ative products or ideas for their
kids to use in their downtime.
8 WNY Family August 2019
HELP FOR
Bored Kids
& Exhausted Parents
W
— by Kathryn Streeter
hoever first penned the
phrase “the lazy days of
summer” surely never
had kids. Parents with young children
are especially apt to be scratching their
heads or on the couch in a fetal position,
wondering how to manage the open, un-
constructed stretch of time called sum-
mer. Even if you’ve successfully penciled
in camps and a trip to visit grandparents,
there will still be slow days, hot days,
blah days, when boredom rules the house
like a tyrant and brings out the worst in
the kids — and you.
Nat King Cole’s song “Those Lazy,
Crazy, Hazy Days of Summer” ends
with, “You’ll wish that summer could al-
ways be here.” If that phrase rings ridicu-
lous, here are five freshly-hatched ideas
to think about implementing this summer
to create enriching, memorable moments.
Surprise your kids by ask-
ing them to co-host after-
noon “Tea,” inviting one of your
girlfriends you’ve struggled to sched-
ule time with to be the guest of honor.
Conduct a reenactment based on proper
etiquette to prepare the kids for the occa-
sion. The catch being, the kids will adore
this idea because it involves cookies —
or cucumber finger sandwiches, if you’re
going to be doctrinaire about it! With
the snack angle established, your kids
will greet your friend at the door, help
serve tea, eat and talk cordially like real
grown-ups for a pre-established amount
of time before they’re allowed to dart off
to their rooms or a nearby stash of toys,
depending on your children’s ages, leav-
ing you and your friend to enjoy each
other’s company.
Surprise your kids by ask-
ing them to explore the Inter-
net. Yes, you read that correctly. With
the computer monitor in a public area of
your home, let your child loose to explore
areas of interest. It’s not too unlike the old
days, when having a set of Encyclopedia
Britannica within easy reach for even the
littlest family members was common.
Does your kid have a weird obses-
sion with turtles? Do they love World
War 2 history? Harry Potter trivia and
the subject of wizardry? Fast cars or pop-
ular backpacks? Let them learn as much
as they can about subjects they’re wild
about. Then, allow them to “upload”
their information to the rest of the family
around the dinner table.
Surprise your kids by
asking them to help plan an
ethnic dinner meal. Starting a
week in advance, ask, “What country
far away would you visit if you could
snap your fingers?” Using food to