When our kids feel like they have nothing fun to do, our reply is always, “That’s great…now go use your imagination!”

Are We There Yet?!

While reading “Are We There Yet?!” aloud to our kids, we heard the story of a young boy complaining about being bored on a long road trip. Almost immediately, our neurodivergent 5 year old exclaimed, “Good!  Now he can create ideas!”

Yes! Create ideas! What a beautiful way to explain imagination.

The Fear of Boredom

Let me tell you, the creative ideas that our little man has…he’s a party looking for a place to happen.  He is always storytelling and masterminding when playing independently.  Sometimes he comes up with elaborate schemes and other times his plans are playfully simple.

But he wasn’t always that way.

Like all kids, he had a tendency to have a short attention span and constantly looked for someone else to engage with him.  He’d look to us, the provider, for all things, including entertainment. His big brown eyes lovingly called out to me, “Dance for me monkey.”

When kids are bored, they seem like they need help knowing what to do, when to do it, and how to do it “the right way”.

As parents, it can be oh so tempting to enable this by constantly redirecting, providing new toys or media, downloading all of the Pinterest activities, or just putting on the TV.  I mean, it does get the whining to stop in the moment!

But those plans only work for so long before they’re asking you to come up with something else for them to do, because, remember…short attention spans.

But busy is not best.

Freedom in the Boredom

Reality is, kids need time to be bored!  They need to sit in the discomfort of antsy-without-a-plan.  It breeds creativity! It stretches their attention muscles and gets the inspiration juices flowing.

Additionally, it gives their little brains a chance to unwind from the anxiety of keeping up with expectations and schedules and chaos. Our world is constantly asking children to transition from one thing to the next at a rapid pace. They have very little down time.

It may seem counterintuitive, but down time actually fosters imagination.  Their unique gifts and talents lie in the boredom, not in activity.

What does your child tend to when not directed towards it? Where do they find joy when left to their own exploration? What ideas or stories do they create? How can you celebrate them and provide more opportunity to give them the space to revisit that freedom more often?

Mischief and Boredom

What’s the catch? Without boundaries and some distant observation, freedom plus boredom can breed mischief. And, yes, often creativity is messy.

Next post, we’ll share how you can set your kiddos (and yourselves) up for a successful creating of ideas.

For now, practice inviting boredom into your child’s day. “Bored? Great…go use your imagination!”

Become what you are. - Renzo & Monica