Let your children also know boredom. The important thing is to realize that this is not about wasted time.
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerousChristmas is approaching and for many there is the idea - for some from hives - that children will have a party at school. 15 days, some more or less, totally free, 15 days, some more or less, late wake up, snacks to go, afternoons with cousins, outings, appointments, parties and parties. But, there is a but, mom and dad don't always have vacations. So what do you actually get the little brats to do?
Anything! Put your soul in peace: even children have the right to be bored and do not call the pediatrician immediately if you see that they are basking even for an afternoon in their boredom. They have nothing wrong with them, they simply rest!
There are undoubtedly many activities to fill children's free time even during the Christmas break, but they don't necessarily have to be done from first to last. It is no coincidence that psychologists and child development experts now suggest that excessive programming of children's leisure time is unnecessary and may even prevent them from discovering what really appeals to them.
Our role as parents? To prepare children to take their place in society, then also to be responsible for managing free time in a way that makes everyone happier.
"If parents spend all their time trying to occupy their children's free time, then the child will never learn to do it on his own." Lyn Fry, a London child psychologist, says it plainly.
And Fry isn't alone in pointing out the benefits of boredom. Teresa Belton, professor at the University of East Anglia, focuses on the connection between boredom and imagination, stating one thing not just: boredom is fundamental for the development of "inner stimulation", which in turn allows for true creativity.
And although our ability to get bored has been significantly reduced especially with web attractions, experts have been debating the importance of doing nothing for decades. It was only 1993 when the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips wrote: "The ability to be bored can be an evolutionary result for children".
How to balance the right to be bored and the activities to (can) do
One of the most frequent yet difficult to decipher requests from adults is that children "should" be busy, instead of having time to find what interests them. Boredom is an integral part of the time management process.
In this regard, Lyn Fry suggests that at the beginning of a particular period of suspension from normal daily activities - Christmas or summer, for example - it would be nice for parents to prepare together with their children (preferably from the age of four then) a task list that the little ones can do during their holidays.
These can include basic activities, such as playing cards, reading a book or riding a bike, or even more elaborate ideas, such as cooking a dinner, creating a game, or taking pictures.
Result? If your child comes to you during the holidays complaining of boredom, they will just have to look for the activities on the list.
“This gives them the responsibility to decide: 'this is what I want to do,'” explains Fry. The important thing is to realize that this is not about wasted time.
Basically, i children should simply learn to be bored only with the aim of being motivated to carry out activities on your own. "Allowing them to get bored is a way to turn them into independent children."
Read also:
Traveling with children: vademecuum to fight boredom
10 tips for raising happy and kind children to the world (#unamammagreen)
The best gift for children is the time we spend with them
A similar theory was proposed, listen, listen, back in 1930 by the philosopher Bertrand Russell, who dedicated a chapter of his book "The Conquest of Happiness" to the potential value of boredom. Then Russel wrote:
“The ability to endure a more or less monotonous life should be acquired in childhood. Modern parents have a lot of guilt in this aspect: they offer their children too many passive diversions, such as shows and sweets, and they don't realize how important it is to a child that one day will be the same as another, except, obviously, for something special ”.
A few moments of boredom, therefore, gentlemen, do not hurt! Let your children take their space and decide for themselves what to do. Obviously, everything must go in harmony with the rest of the family, but it will go without saying that everything will find its right moment. Even boredom.
Germana Carillo
