Stealing Their Boredom

Quite a while ago someone wrote, “Point your kids in the right direction, and when they’re old they won’t be lost.”

That’s Proverbs 22:6.

More recently, Kathy Hougaard-Lively wrote this (as usual, the highlights are mine)—-

As a child and adolescent therapist, I cringe when I see children in restaurants watching TV on their parents’ phones. Babies in grocery baskets are often engaged by iPads instead of the sights and sounds around them. Teens in cars so rarely look out the windows while riding that they are afraid to drive because they don’t know how to get around in their own towns. We are stunting an entire generation.

She says more —-

By not allowing our kids to experience the slightest period of boredom, we deny them the chance to learn to self-soothe or to discover their own imagination. If my childhood best friend and I were inside playing video games, we never would have hollowed out the big bush in our backyard to make a clubhouse. We never would have dug up my parents’ garden with spoons looking for buried treasures. How sad that would be, because those are my favorite memories of my childhood.

“I find myself worrying most that when we hand our children phones, we steal their boredom from them. As a result, we are raising a generation of writers who will never start writing, artists who will never start doodling, young chefs who will never make a mess in their kitchen, athletes who will never kick a ball against the wall, musicians who will never pick up their dad’s guitar and start strumming.” (Glennon Doyle)

Instead, we will create another generation of socially stunted young adults who are depressed, physically unhealthy and lacking motivation, imagination, and social skills.

Electronics serve a purpose, but are being abused by parents and children alike.

Please do your kids a favor and teach them to live in the moment.

Sometimes, turn the electronics off.

—- 😳