Time Spent Doing Nothing

And your child is sitting on the floor and looking at you exasperated!
Well, before you get all worked up or rush in to save your child from the
boredom monster, first understand this…
Boredom is NOT the bad guy here!
In today’s fast-paced world, we feel that children need to be kept

busy constantly. So we force things onto our little ones forgetting
something that all young minds require…
Time spent doing nothing.
That’s right!
(It’s ironic that as adults, we’d give anything to receive this ‘time’ , but
children just want to get out of it!!)
Well, this ‘time spent doing nothing’ is extremely important for children
to develop characteristics that would build their personality,
and shape the person they turn out to be.
And what’s more? It builds their creative abilities!
When your child is left alone, they learn to imagine better in order to
entertain themselves, and their creativity improves along with it. They
tend to find out-of-the-box solutions to their boredom.
RELATED: How To Engage Children – The Essential Guide

And here’s how this helps in the long-run…
Research has proven that children who are encouraged to think

creatively tend to exhibit higher self-esteem and motivation. And what’s
more is, creativity, when expressed in childhood, is the highest predictor
of future success.
But what do we actually do when our
children get Bored?
As parents, we rush in to ‘save’ them. It’s the norm, almost.
This is because we feel that boredom is a very negative emotion. We don’t

want our children to get cranky or irritable, just so we can carry on doing
our daily chores.
So, what do we do?
In most cases, we quickly search our pockets and hand over colourful lit
up screens for the child to play with quietly.
Seems like the perfect solution to boredom, isn’t it?
Wrong. And, here’s why…

It restricts their innate abilities
When we keep children constantly busy (with whatever it may be), and
don’t allow them to sit in the nothingness of boredom, we don’t allow
their minds to wander.
We restrict their inner channels from taking control of their imagination

and expressing their natural preferences.
What does the child actually enjoy doing?
What is the child naturally inclined towards?
Where does their talent truly lie?
The self-exploration that takes place when a child is bored enables them
to better understand themselves.
Your child will be forced to find an alternative – an internal way of

keeping themselves occupied.
They’ll start to break apart toys and put them back together. (Their
instinctive talent here could be engineering)
In order to develop a sense of self, they need to be left idle. In other

words, they need to be bored.
But when you hand them a smartphone…

They end up passively engaging with it without doing anything else. Here,
your child isn’t exploring or thinking about what they like doing. Your
child does not realize their potential or talent.
By giving them a screen, the discovery or self-exploration would never

have taken place.
So if you feel that your child simply isn’t responsive or motivated, let me
tell you this — they simply didn’t have the environment required to
develop these abilities.
But are children able to handle
boredom?
Engaging environments:
Our children are used to highly engaging surroundings. Take the

whole environment screens are based on, for example…
Mobile phones and tablets make it possible to do a million different

things at once, with every want satisfied at the touch of a finger.
Television is fast-paced, exciting, and addictive. We use television as a
bait to get kids to eat, to get them to keep quiet, and to allow them to do
our chores.
All this is highly stimulating and highly engaging so the child is hooked
non-stop. And while they are so busy consuming the colourful content,
they don’t have the time to think or explore or discover by themselves.
Rigid schedules at school:
The rigid studying hours at both home and schools can have a huge effect
on their self-expression.
This sort of inflexibility stops the child from understanding what they

really want to do and prevents them from actually doing it.
Schools give children activity after activity to engage in, as well as a pile
of homework to do. If the school is encouraging self-expression and
creativity through these activities, that would be highly beneficial.
But most often, schools tend to order children to perform task after task,
without explaining why or considering their individual preferences.
When our kids are used to environments this engaging and are constantly
busy, they feel trapped and helpless when they’re left alone with nothing
to keep them that busy.

Time Spent Doing Nothing

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Time Spent Doing Nothing

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Time Spent Doing Nothing

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

And your child is sitting on the floor and looking at you exasperated!

Boredom is NOT the bad guy here!

In today’s fast-paced world, we feel that children need to be kept

Time spent doing nothing.

And what’s more? It builds their creative abilities!

RELATED: How To Engage Children – The Essential Guide

Research has proven that children who are encouraged to think

But what do we actually do when our

children get Bored?

As parents, we rush in to ‘save’ them. It’s the norm, almost.

This is because we feel that boredom is a very negative emotion. We don’t

So, what do we do?

Seems like the perfect solution to boredom, isn’t it?

Wrong. And, here’s why…

We restrict their inner channels from taking control of their imagination

What does the child actually enjoy doing?

What is the child naturally inclined towards?

Where does their talent truly lie?

Your child will be forced to find an alternative – an internal way of

In order to develop a sense of self, they need to be left idle. In other

But when you hand them a smartphone…

By giving them a screen, the discovery or self-exploration would never

But are children able to handle

Our children are used to highly engaging surroundings. Take the

Mobile phones and tablets make it possible to do a million different

Rigid schedules at school:

This sort of inflexibility stops the child from understanding what they

You might also like