I'm bored!

It's the weekend......and you know what that means? Mom, I'm bored? Bored, you say? I wish I knew how to be bored. Bored is wasted on the young. I remember being bored, but I can't for the life of me figure out how or why I was EVER bored as a child. I had the whole world at my feet! Hours of unsupervised playtime! I could leave home on my bike and return when I felt like it, or when it got dark, whichever came first. But I and my peers also possessed something our new generation of young seem to have lost. Evolution seems to be phasing it out. It's called imagination.

Today two of my kids were actually laying on the floor, complaining about being bored and expecting me to do something about it. Helpfully, I suggested they could do some spring cleaning which was immediately rejected. I offered them the opportunity to go through their picture drawers - deep drawers where I've tossed all their pictures and some school mementos into (what? I love doing that!). No dice. I even suggested they take their cameras and go on a photo safari, taking pictures of "signs of spring" (see how helpful I was offering a theme?). There was a tiny spark of interest but it dimmed as quickly as it had burned. I said it was really THEIR job to learn how to entertain themselves and my child said she didn't know how. Truly, is this now a learned behavior? Is necessity no longer the mother of invention?

When I was "bored" as a child, I would retreat into my room and lay on my bed and draw. Nothing made me happier and the best gift I could ever get was blank white paper which I filled with hundreds of drawings of people. In my head, there was always a story going; instead of writing it down, I drew it. Sure, it made no sense to anyone else. But I didn't draw for anyone else. I drew for me. It was my entertainment. I also loved playing with Fisher Price Little People. Or just sticks of different sizes that could be my pretend "family". As a teen, I would read, make photo albums, write notes to friends, write letters, listen to music, take a walk, hang out with friends doing nothing, bake. I could always come up with something and I didn't ask my parents to entertain me. I KNOW I lamented that I was "bored" many times, but I don't remember getting a suggestion of what to do unless it included the vacuum cleaner or a container of Comet.

I firmly believe that too much screen time has seeped our kids' imagination from their brains. Without a screen, they are lost. At any given time they have a cell phone, a computer, an iPad, a TV. Once they exhaust their options on those, they have no clue where to turn. But inside the house we have books, arts and crafts, music, games. And outside there's a world of possibilities. Still, today they wanted to "go somewhere". When I suggested several parks, they said "and do what?" (umm...play?). When I suggested a short hike, they said there was "no place good around here". So, we didn't go anywhere. Because we couldn't agree on what to do. Which was just fine with me, because my "to do" list will never be completely done and I was plenty busy.  I clipped coupons and paid bills. What fun! And I still have "homework" from my job to do. It involves coloring (hey, I work in a kindergarten!) and do you think they want to help me with that? Nope. Now, I ask you, who doesn't love to color?

I guess they might as well enjoy being bored while they can. For all too soon, they will be so busy they won't have time to be bored. They will WISH for a day when all the chores are done, and everyone is fed, and everyone has clean clothes and there's food in the pantry, and the floors are clean, and the bills are paid, and the house is spotless, and they find themselves suddenly and utterly struck by paralyzing boredom. And by the time they begin to think about what to do with all that delicious, unexpected time, the baby will cry and the dog will throw up on the rug and a glass will break, and the doorbell will ring, and someone will be hungry and, likely as not, someone will be pulling on their leg saying "I'm bored!"

My riveting life...........

There comes a kind of sad time in your life when a Friday night is just another night and nothing exciting ever happens. Tonight is one of those nights. I mean, I should qualify this by saying that nothing out of the ordinary happens, because most nights in my house something exciting happens - at least something chaotic, gross, or disturbing. But that's just par for the course. I'm talking about that feeling that used to happen on Fridays - that "woo-hoo it's the weekend, PAR-TAY" feeling. Tonight I was kind of excited to go to Costco. I mean, not super excited but it was better than just sitting around the house or staring at Facebook waiting for something cool to happen. But I didn't want to go alone and Jeff wanted to ride his bike "the long way" home, stopping by Home Depot to spend money we don't have on ridiculous things like a pop rivet gun and drill bits to install a rod holder on his new (did I mention we don't have any money?) kayak. But I digress....

So, no Costco to break things up. And anyway, no money. But we do need toilet paper. It's actually a bit of an emergency and I hope no one eats or drinks too much before tomorrow when we might actually GO to Costco to get really fun stuff like TP and fish oil. Now, I have a list of things "to do". Some are important like paying bills and cleaning the house. Some are projects like transferring all the files from the downstairs file cabinet to the upstairs file cabinet. Some are "fun" like making scrabble tile necklaces that I bought the supplies for in November and still haven't gotten around to. I have scrapbooks to complete, walls I'd love to paint, shelves that haven't been dusted since........well, anyway, I have stuff to do. But some nights you just want to be entertained and no amount of inspiration will motivate you to jump on those projects. Tonight is one of those nights.

I did manage to make dinner, clean out a junk drawer and do a load of dishes. But I've also signed on and off Facebook a zillion times (you know it's bad when your post is still the latest post a half hour later). I've read my email and the news, perused photos of the destruction of the recent tornadoes in the south, watched seven  "raw" videos of tornadoes, and yes, even skimmed a few royal wedding photos (yawn!). I've jotted some important dates in my calendar, looked over paperwork, and sent my two oldest off to the store with my debit card to spend yet again MORE money on their upcoming musical, which is nickel and diming us to death.

And yet, I'm, dare I say it? BORED. I have a ton of things I NEED to do, many things I WANT to do, and plenty of stuff I SHOULD do, and I'm just too bored to do any of it. At least I've passed the acceptable time where it's ok to go to bed now. But I'll probably stay up a little bit longer because now my two youngest are outside in the pitch dark, chopping wood with an AXE and attempting to build a fire in the fire pit. I may be taking a child and a severed foot to the ER soon. Or eating a roasted marshmallow. Let's hope for the latter.