Why You Should Let Your Kid Be Bored This Summer, According to Psychologists

Why You Should Let Yur Kid Be Bored This Summer, According to Psychologists Do you spend your summers scrambling to take your kids from swimming practice to soccer practice to their outdoor education camp to coding camp and more? Psychologists suggest that perhaps you take it easy this summer. After all, a dose of boredom is healthy for them.Your role as a parent is to prepare children to take their place in society, Lyn Fry, a London-based child psychologist with a focus on education has In fact, Fry isnt alone in sharing this belief.Dr. Teresa Belton, a visiting fellow at the University of East Anglia who focuses on the connection between boredom and imagination, has told the BBC that boredom is necessary in reservierung for children to develop internal stimulus and, ultimately, get creative.Dont quite buy it? Consider this.1. Boredom forces kids to use their imaginations to play.If your child is bored, theyll be forced to think outside the box. When theyre not given toys or games with which to play, theyll have to come up with their own imaginative games to play.2. Free time means more time for introspection.Uninterrupted free time is self-care time. This is because it allows us to look inward and be alone in our own thoughts, reflections and ideas. If your child is left alone with nothing to distract them, its inevitable that theyll start to look inward.3. Out of boredom can come creative geniuses.Inspiration often strikes when were bored sitting there with nothing else to do but make up creations in our heads... some of which manifest into realities. Writers write out of boredom. Musicians make music out of boredom. Designers design out of boredom. Thats because when we have a choice as to how to fill our empty space, we fill it with our passions, many of which are creative.4. Being bored is a natural feeling that theyll have to learn at some point anyway.Everyone will experience boredom at some point in time, including your children. They might as well b e introduced to boredom young so that they dont become too attached to constant stimulation. This way, they can develop a healthier relationship with boredom and use their time wisely and productively (even if that means catching up on self-care practices like just plain relaxing), instead of turning to abused (and, thus, toxic) stimulants down the line.5. Boredom will encourage them to spend more quality time with each other.When your children dont have toys or cell phone or televisions or computers or games, theyll have... each other. And theyll spend a lot more quality time together than they would if they did have any or all of those things. Thats because theyll likely talk more and engage their imaginations together.--AnnaMarie Houlis is a feminist, a freelance journalist and an adventure aficionado with an affinity for impulsive solo travel. She spends her days writing about womens empowerment from around the world. You can follow her work on her blog, HerReport.org, and follo w her journeys on Instagram her_report,Twitterherreportand Facebook.