According to numerous studies, boredom is good for children because it stimulates their creativity, and it would therefore be good to give them more moments of inactivity.
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerousAs soon as we see a child getting bored we run for cover thinking there is something wrong. And immediately we imagine a thousand ways to occupy that free time, filling it with any activity just to fight the great enemy, boredom. Yet, for years now, experts have been pointing out how much it is It is important to allow children the "luxury" of being bored.
For example, psychoanalyst Adam Philips says this in his book "On kissing, tickling and boredom", where he invites parents to indulge boredom, because it is thanks to it that the human being learns to contemplate life instead of going through it. without thinking about anything. And it is always thanks to boredom that children learn to find out what they are really passionate about, beyond what mum and dad like. Because boredom brings out unthinkable abilities and things, which otherwise risk being locked in a drawer.
And Philips isn't the only one to think so! Suffice it to say that among the many researches conducted on the topic, one in particular, conducted by Karen Gasper and Brianna Middlewood of Pennsylvania State University, showed that bored participants performed better in creativity tests than those who were distracted by others. To demonstrate that human creativity is stimulated precisely by boredom.
But if your free time is completely filled with activities, getting bored, it goes without saying, becomes difficult. And the problem also concerns construction activities, not only the use of tablets and smartphones which, as is well known, tend to make children passive. Because as much as sports and various courses are useful and fun, if they are too many they take away space for imagination and freedom.
Boredom in fact forces us to being in the void, in non-action, still and alone, and although it appears apparently anachronistic, given the times that exist, it is actually very important thing. Because it stimulates a new way of looking at the world, calmer and more reflective, helping us from an early age to appreciate silence and small things. Planning the life of our children down to the smallest detail, although sometimes it is more a necessity than anything else, is therefore not as positive as we think. It is necessary to leave them free, at least sometimes, to get bored.
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Laura Rose
