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Your Letters
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Bored of the Rings!
For most people boredom is some kind of horrible nightmare, something to escape from as quickly as possible. If children complain that they are bored they will often be met with an exasperated “after all I’ve bought for you!” or with a “well do something then!” But is boredom so bad? I don’t think so. Being bored means having time on your hands with nothing specific you want to do. You could say that this website is the product of my boredom. As my children have become older and more independant I have relatively empty arms. For long afternoons I have nothing to do, I am bored, relaxed, at ease, underutilised, call it what you will. It has given me the chance to be creative. If I had continously kept myself busy I would have no thoughts to write down!
So if my children come to me and say they are bored (an unusual occurrence) I say "that’s nice dear!" Some of their best thinking, games or models have emerged from a boring afternoon.
I think most children in today’s society are totally over stimulated with even quiet times being dominated by Play Station games or watching T.V. Society behaves as though boredom is a dirty word and staring into space a crime. Children bought up with no genuinely free (boring) time will have lost the ability to think creatively. They will have an innate fear of doing nothing and will think that distraction is the key to emotional health.
Of course children do need stimulation. We take our kids on regular days out and spend lots of time with them. Sometimes on a rainy afternoon we will all play a mammoth board game or watch a film together. But sometimes I think it’s O.K. to be bored, in fact it’s good for you.
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"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." Abraham Lincoln.
"Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?" Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)
"Action may not bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action." Benjamin Disraeli 1804 - 1881
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