Why are children never allowed to be bored these days? And is this a good thing?

[MrsSchadenfreude]

The thing I remember most about my childhood is the insufferable boredom at weekends:

Being left in a pub garden/car park with a packet of crisps or a lemonade, with someone coming out to check on me every so often.

Being dragged round MFI at Wembley or Brentford Nylons (we were classy) for hours.

Visiting aging relatives who had brown sitting rooms and biting dogs and having to sit on horrid greasy sofa not even being allowed to read "because it's rude and we don't see Aunt Aydel very often".

Sitting on aging relative's brown sofa while parents got drunk with aging relative and having to spend the night on the brown sofa as they were incapable of driving home.

I am an only child so had no siblings to relieve the boredom.

Mine have weekends full of riding, going to park, having friends over and being allowed to take books or games when we visit relatives. So boredom rarely kicks in.

I had siblings and still remember the boredom.

i think its a bad thing kids arent allowed to get bored these days, they never have to use their imagination as they are being constatly stimulated.

Social rules about visiting relaives are moere relaxed which is a good thing

Glad I'm not the only one!

If my son complains of being bored I get him to do some cleaning . I think they have so much stuff that they hav no idea how to just sit and think. I don't know if it's good to pack so much into their lives, as an adult they will expect to be busy all the time and will not be able to just relax. My son plays with lego or reads a book when he's bored. I make him do some cleaning if he gets bored after this, it tends to shut him up.

I don;t get this thing with parents who feel every single day of the school hols needs to be stuffed with activity. When I were a lass, we used to go on one otr maybe 2 day-trips to the seaside or whatever. Otherwise we played ij the garden, or made up games in the house.

I have a frined whose kids do something every farking day of the week, and her kids are always whingeing. They are also not very good at entertaining thewmselves. I feel sorry for them tbh

Boredom is good for kids, as someone said, it forces tham to use thier imagination

lol @ the brown settees we used to visit aunty mavis and her and my mum would be drinking coffee aunty mavis would say dee do u want juice ? oh no says my mum shes ok id sit there for 2 hours dehydrating listening to the monotonous ramblings lol knowing full well upstairs was a bedroom full of toys and stuff....once i went to the loo and i was so worried about bothering them to turn the light on i walked into a cupboard -burst my nose ran downstairs to get told off!!! and mum checking aunty mavis new stair carpet for blood before being given a thick sanitary towel to hold over my nose and having a pint glass bottle of sterilised milk held against my back to stem the flow!!!

I don;t get this thing with parents who feel every single day of the school hols needs to be stuffed with activity. When I were a lass, we used to go on one otr maybe 2 day-trips to the seaside or whatever. Otherwise we played ij the garden, or made up games in the house.

I have a frined whose kids do something every farking day of the week, and her kids are always whingeing. They are also not very good at entertaining thewmselves. I feel sorry for them tbh

Boredom is good for kids, as someone said, it forces tham to use thier imagination

Being bored is good for the soul. It means you appreciate better times and it means you have to use your grey matter to think of ways to relieve the boredom.
Kids have it all handed to them on a plate nowadays.
Mine are no exception and I hate it, but they are not as pampered as most of their mates.

I'm all for kids entertaining themselves, knocking about in the garden and making up games. That is good.

BUT, taking your children to the park, spending time with them, joining in their games and encouraging their interests (like riding) is hardly bad parenting fgs

There has to ba a balance. Good, structured activities, a few clubs outside school is good. Too much is controling their lives, this is bad. They still need time just to sit and think. It's good to do nothing.

Mrs S, you've made me very grateful that I had no aunts or uncles so no boring visits for me! My only surviving GP lived with us so no visits there either.

My childhood memories of boredom are centred around Sundays and Bank Holidays when nothing but nothing was open. Easter was the worst. The world was shut on Good Friday, open for panic buying of bread on Saturday then closed again on Easter Sun/Mon. Torture.

MrsS, your experience sounds more like being ignored rather than just being bored in the sense that I would mean.

When I was a child we didn't have the money for many days out, let alone the type of activities that exist for children today. But we did do simple things as a family (not all the time though).