As the vacations or even a weekend approaches, every parent finds themselves asking this question with a bit of anxiety: how do we keep the kids occupied during those days without school or extracurricular activities? How to avoid the boredom of Sundays and long vacation weeks? How to ensure a permanent animation from morning to evening? But the real question to ask is: should we let children be bored or not? Researchers in neuropsychology and educational sciences have answered this question with studies that show that boredom is necessary and beneficial to the child. Instead of feeling guilty about your children being bored, learn all the benefits it can bring them.
Boredom to become autonomous:
According to child psychiatrists, when they are bored, children learn to be more inventive but also to take initiative and dare to act. The child is almost obliged to invent an activity that interests him, and this develops his feeling of autonomy and independence. He is left to his own devices for a period of time and must find a way to occupy himself without soliciting his entourage. It is a way to teach the child to rely on himself, to invent his own world with his own games.
Boredom develops creativity:
It is a study published in 2014 in the “Cambridge Journal of Education” that scientifically proves that children who are bored show more creativity. A monotonous activity is followed in the child by a richer creative and artistic inspiration. Boredom allows the brain to escape and daydream, and therefore to be more inspired and imaginative. When our children have nothing to do, they exercise their imagination and this is perhaps the most important skill they can develop. The outside world is changing rapidly and children must adapt to it and will need a lot of creativity to do so.
Boredom develops the ability to make decisions and solve problems:
Indeed, boredom is a problem for the child, and faced with this difficulty, he will be forced to think, find a solution and make a decision. It is the progression of ideas and the time spent cogitating that develops in the child this capacity for analysis and reflection in order to deal with the various problems. Most of the great mathematical and physical equations have been solved by a bored scientist in front of a blackboard or under an apple tree.
Boredom leads to new experiences:
This is not the most reassuring argument for parents, but it is also a learning process of mutual trust. Because children left to their own devices are potential adventurers. It is, therefore, necessary to anticipate certain dangers, through prevention, and especially through dialogue. It is very positive to try new experiences but without taking risks for their health or safety. Letting them be bored is a way to make them more responsible.
Boredom is a way to get to know yourself and discover your child’s true interests:
Letting your child be bored is also a way to see him/her naturally move towards what really interests him/her. Like all parents, you often impose activities on your child, without really taking into account what he likes. By letting the child choose, without influences or constraints, he will naturally move towards what really interests him.
Boredom for a better psychic development:
A study published in 2012 in the journal “Perspectives on Psychological Science” showed that boredom is a beneficial process for the psychic development of the child. The child who is bored strives to develop skills to find an interesting occupation that allows him to move forward. Moreover, boredom teaches the child to relativize and to become aware of his rightful place. He is not the center of the world and must make a place for himself, create a personality, whose choices are not guided solely by the parents.
Boredom to find motivation:
Children must learn to find a rhythm that is not managed by their parents. To do this, they must motivate themselves to undertake activities, and even to do what they must do (classes, sports, activities…). Boredom is a school that allows them to learn how to manage time and find the motivation to undertake an interesting activity: create a game, read, explore, make, draw…
Boredom in children is good for parents:
Being obsessed with your children, with what they are doing every moment of the day is exhausting and very stressful for parents. The parent must integrate the idea that his child has the right to be bored and that it is a moment that he can take advantage of to take care of himself and why not grant himself the right to be bored in turn. This even improves the parent-child relationship which sometimes suffers from the parents’ constant state of stress and anxiety. Children do not feel good about this parental state and feel guilty about it, which can have an impact on their balance.
The brain is an organ that never stops and does not know inactivity, especially in children. When they are not doing anything, children will not stay looking at the walls for long. Their brains are trying to make life more interesting and richer. When your children are bored, it helps them to find value in their own lives, their own experiences, and to develop their interests and worldviews. Boredom makes them psychologically stronger and ready for the future.
