Boredom

After almost an entire day of watching movies and tv, I stopped to read the newspaper only to find a short article on boredom...how appropriate. Actually, I wasn't bored today...I wanted to take the day off (after all, it was Labor Day) and rest after a few weeks of being sick (and believe you me, this is totally valid!). Ironically, this article spoke about the fact that boredom may actually be a good thing specifically for children since their lives are extremely stressful these days. According to a poll by KidsHealth, 41% of kids feel stressed most or all of the time because they have too much to do.

So this then forces me to ask myself this: when did childhood become stressful? I remember the days of playing outside with my brother and sister making "houses" out of leaves and tunnels out of snow piles. I remember my mom packing my sister and I a "picnic" lunch in a brown bag that we could eat outside on the front porch. Or lying on the floor in a sleeping bag on a Sunday afternoon watching the snow fall. How is that stressful?

The article outlines some tips for parents to encourage their children to "get bored." It is somehow ironic that when I was a kid we were avoiding boredom to the point of creating our own fun by building a "swamp" trail through the green carpet in our basement. My, how times have changed.

Have our lives these days become so busy that even our children are getting stressed out? Is it so stressful that now we have to take advice on how to encourage boredom? Can I get permission to be bored?