The next time you’re waiting in line or hanging out at the park this summer, look around you. You’ll see a bunch of parents texting, tweeting, Facebooking, or Instagramming on their smartphones. Chances are, you may also see a few smartphone-less kids looking miserable. It might be our fault. We adults have forgotten how to handle boredom. We’re never bored, because: technology. So it makes sense that our kids—who follow our lead and are on their iPods or iPads or iPhones just as much as us—get used to always having something to attract their attention. They need something to do. Without technology, they might run out of stuff to do. Heaven forbid. These are monsters of our own making. I’m just as guilty as any other parent. We over-schedule and over-plan for our kids so that they never really have any downtime. The problem with this is that they never really have any unstructured time. They don’t learn how to deal with boredom. I wrote a post a while back about the Beauty of Summer Boredom. It’s important for kids to learn how to handle time on their hands. So when one of my kids comes up to me and says, “I’m bored,” I try to be prepared with a few responses. I’ve rounded up a few of my favorite comebacks at my column over at Lifetime Moms. You can read it here.
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