"I'm not the provider of things to do.”
That’s what my mother told me when I told her I was bored.
Compared to my kids today, there really wasn’t a lot to do as a child in our neighborhood growing up. There were no home video games. Television had three channels—four if you counted PBS on the UHF dial.
Now, my kids have a million things to do. They have an iPad with more games on it than you would find at an arcade. Netflix® and cable provide countless TV choices.
Yet every summer, they say, “I’m bored.” And, because I am my mother’s son, I say those words I heard so often as a kid. “I’m not the provider of things to do.” How do we deal with this summer (and ongoing) boredom monster?
A little boredom isn’t always bad.
Did I mention that you are not the provider of things to do? That’s important, both for you and your kids.
If you have every day of their summer planned out, there is no room for spontaneity or creativity. You can become stressed out and burned out trying to come up with new ideas, and they’ll never be given the opportunity to come up with something on their own.
They may find a new use for an old toy or remember how much they loved a certain board game. Younger kids may spend all day creating pretend adventures with a cardboard box. Older kids might wake up and decide they want to read a book, write a song or even start working on their own fiction book.
Give them some space to allow their boredom to become an opportunity. But you can use the summer to make some plans with your kids.
1. Point to things that are fun and worth doing.
There is no reason to let the summer be a never-ending stream of electronics. Instead, give some ideas to spark their imagination.
For example, you might take a trip to the local library and encourage them to check out some books about their favorite subject. Find a good, age-appropriate book they could read and learn more about something they already love.
You could also direct them toward some fun experiments they could try. Recently, one of my daughters gathered some samples from nature and then used the Internet to help her classify them.
For the athletic child, encourage them to use the summer to work on their sport. Another of our daughters used her time away from school to work on soccer skills.
Yes, you might get some rolled eyes and an occasional, “I’m off school.” But if it’s something that is both fun and worth doing, they’ll eventually focus on the fun part and you can enjoy the fact that it’s worth doing.
2. Plan some things to do together.
Summer is a great time to do things with your kids. For us, it’s a time for family adventures that we couldn’t do as easily during the school year.
Try taking a short road trip. It doesn’t have to be a cross-country trek. My daughter and I drove to a community near us and looked for interesting things about that town, its people, and its history.
Pick out a book and read it together. Spend time talking about it. That gives you a chance to get to know your kids even better and demonstrate that you care enough to invest in them and their passions.
Find something your child likes to do and join him or her. Another daughter enjoys fishing, so we often go together after work or on Saturdays. Not only are we spending time together doing something she enjoys, it gives us time to talk.
3. Pick some things that they can do with others.
Summer is a great time for your kids to do things with other kids, but it takes some planning. You want to do more than just send them to someone else’s house to watch TV all day, so partner with other parents to take turns in providing fun activities.
Coming up with an idea every day for your kid may be overwhelming, but maybe you can find a dozen interesting activities. That’s one a week. Work with other parents from your community, school or church and host each other’s kids on different days.
Yes, it would be more work for you on that one day, but it would give your child something to do, help them develop friendships, help you develop friendships and even give you some free time during the days they are visiting someone else’s home.
Work together as parents to help make this a fun, memorable summer for your kids.
4. Avoid the easy way out.
Summer is a hard time to keep kids busy and there is always the temptation to simply let them watch TV. But the one-eyed monster of the screen cannot be the only solution to the boredom monster.
I’m not anti-electronics. Those can be part of your kids’ free time this summer. They just shouldn’t be all of it. You want your kids’ summer to be more than simply binge-watching shows on Netflix®.
Instead of relying only on TV, slay the boredom monster with wise planning and good ideas. You may not be the provider of things to do, but you can be the provider of great memories and a special summer for your kids.
Article courtesy of HomeLife magazine.