‘Mom, I’m Bored’ and why I don’t do anything about it

MOMS know how bored kids can be really irritating. They are prone to whining or seeking attention in the most outrageous ways. When my K was nearing three, she would do something she knows would perhaps cause me to have a heart attack like trying to stand on her head while shouting, “Look at me!”

Of course I would look at her, get shocked, then get mad, then give her a sermon – all in a span of one minute. Simultaneously, my blood pressure elevates and I berate myself for having left my precious only child to her own devices and thus allowed her to endanger herself. I begin to think of myself as a really bad mom, forgetting that I gave up a career and a life to be with her almost 24/7 – just because I allowed her to get bored that single instant.

So with a sigh, I would coax her to be a good girl and give her a smorgasbord of things to do. My naughty little devil begins to get happy, mission accomplished. Mom’s attention is back!

Yesterday she whined, “Mom, I’m bored.”

I didn’t even look up from my computer. I simply answered her, “Deal with it.”

As most of you dearies know, she’s now five. As with the rest of the human race, every now and then she suffers from boredom. Perhaps, more than other kids because we are raising her without TV. Yes, that’s right. We do not have TV at home. She does have an iPad, which she is only allowed to use when the sky gets dark during weekdays and freely on weekends. She is also an only child and so there is no ready playmate for her.

What she does have are reams of bond papers, coloring materials ranging from crayons to acrylic paints, pencils and brushes in different varieties, blackboards, about six pairs of scissors, yarns, books and some toys. She even has “stuff” to tinker with like buttons, popsicle sticks, marbles and even toothpicks.

I also allow her to make a mess and let the mess stay for days on end until she is done with her project and cleans up. And I let her do what she wants with the things that she owns. I am definitely not the kind of mom who would preserve an original Barbie in its box so a future 18 year old version of my kid can oohh and ahhh at its splendor.

I thoroughly believe that a right amount of boredom is good for my kid, even for adults. After all, don’t some of us get our best ideas while sitting bored on the toilet bowl?

Dr. Sandi Mann and Rebekah Cadman from the University of Central Lancashire conducted a study that showed that people are more creative after dealing with a boring work than those who were engaged in something interesting. That’s like saying boredom makes you more creative.

And I think that translates even to little kids. Out of boredom, my K turned an Elsa doll into Maleficent. She also makes up, writes and illustrates stories in bond papers and asks me to staple them together so they would be books. She had glued structures out of toothpicks, popsicle sticks, stones and what not. She once converted her area into a city with a corner for a school, a home and an office.

But there are also times when she tells me that she is bored and I reply with, “Yeah, me too.” So we end our boredom together. Happy times!

Cheers to raising kids!

*****

[Email me at plonkytalk@gmail.com or like my FB page: https://www.facebook.com/PlonkyTalk or check my blog posts at http://plonkytalk.com]

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