"Every spare moment is to be optimized, maximized, driven toward a goal," this is the premise of modern day life in the western world and we have passed it on to our children. We are teaching them that things need to come quickly and in an exciting package, otherwise move on to the next stimulating blurb coming their way. Is it perhaps time to slow ourselves and our children down and allow them to develop their own thoughts, creativity, and perhaps just be ok with "being." I can remember going to the public laundromat as a child and watching the machines go around and looking at the people waiting, no digital screens in sight. We played with pots, yes planter pots, in the backyard. They became people around which we could create stories, families, villages in our minds. Anything was possible to transform with our imaginations. So what a gift to give our children to just slow down, not over-schedule them, not feel the need to provide constant entertainment for them and just trust that they have the inborn ability to create engaging moments for themselves. Moments born from nothing, from boredom.
This note was inspired by the New York Times article, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/opinion/sunday/children-bored.html