How Do You Handle Boredom?

This post originally appeared on Tapestry’s website on June 18, 2013.

Does the start of summer strike fear or dread in your heart? Are you overwhelmed with planning how to entertain your children? Do you scour Pinterest for new ideas? (Did we mention we are on Pinterest? You can follow us – Tapestry and Empowered to Connect.) Well the Wall Street Journal posted an article about boredom entitled A Smart Answer to the Season of ‘I’m Bored’.

In the article some families talk about their feelings and how they approach boredom, and there were some statements that left me questioning myself, my thoughts and feelings. I asked myself:

How do you feel when your kids say they’re bored?

“”We assign a lot of social meaning to boredom,” says John D. Eastwood, an associate professor of psychology at York University in Toronto, and lead author of the study. “When children complain of being bored, parents sometimes are threatened, thinking, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ Or they judge themselves as parents, thinking they failed to bring up their child to have the proper character or skills,” he says.” A Smart Answer to the Season of ‘I’m Bored’

Have you ever wonder what else your child may be feeling besides a sense of boredom?

“Kids who complain of boredom aren’t necessarily lazy or slacking off, but are actually in a tense, negative state, says a 2012 study in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. Frustrated and struggling to engage, they often find themselves unable to focus their attention or get started on satisfying activities…Many youngsters in the grips of boredom show physiological symptoms of stress, such as an accelerated heart rate and elevated levels of the hormone cortisol, according to research co-written by James Danckert, a psychology professor specializing in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. Other studies link boredom to nail-biting and emotional eating.” A Smart Answer to the Season of ‘I’m Bored’

So what should we do when our kids feel bored?

“…, parents should “take a deep breath, step back” and help children explore solutions for themselves…” A Smart Answer to the Season of ‘I’m Bored’

In addition to the statements above, this article also brings up the idea that a child could be overwhelmed with unstructured play time; the child could not know where to begin. So we need to talk to our children and explore solutions and suggest ideas to help break the boredom. One of the parents in the article has a boredom buster jar which I am sure Pinterest would have a ton of ideas on this.

I encourage you to read this article in its entirety. Let us know what you have found works for your family and share your ideas with us. We look forward to hearing from you!