Dealing Childs Boredom

The first time you hear your child say he or she is bored, it might feel terrible. It is a general assumption that children ought to be busy all the time and boredom in children may sound as if there’s something miserably wrong.

Relax! Although you are not the only parent who may feel this way, there is a great deal of thoughtfulness and understanding that is required by a parent in dealing child’s boredom.

Allow your child to get bored

When you sense that your child is bored or if your child verbally expresses that he or she is bored, first of all, be assured that boredom in children is natural. Just as adults get bored, children can get bored too. They might have been mentally involved enough in an activity or play for a few hours or days, and perhaps they might need a phase of boredom to be followed after an immense active period.

Sometimes, it is just alright to allow them to get bored. When they sit quietly, bored and inactive, their mind might wander to a distant space – a place from where new ideas, solutions to problems and revived energy springs up.

Listen to your child

One of the common reactions of parents while dealing child’s boredom is to provide them with a plenty options to engage them immediately in an activity. In the process, an important parenting responsibility can get skipped – listening to your child.

When your child is bored, begin a casual conversation with your child. Without digging deep into why they feel bored, ask them to explain what they feel. Allow them to express their thoughts while refraining from passing judgments on how right or wrong it is to feel a certain way or offering solutions to fix their problems. Most often what children need is a parent who can listen to them attentively and acknowledge their emotions. Sometimes, a child who is able to receive a parent’s attention and kindness may feel relieved from boredom.

Address your child's issue if there is one

When you converse with a bored child, remember that boredom is not a problem and you necessarily do not have to try to fix it. Instead, address if there is anything in particular which makes them feel bored. Some children may need a company to play with; playing alone may be boring for them. Offering to play with them might get them back to activity. Some children might feel bored with the same toys or same kind of games. Introducing a new play activity can be interesting to them.

Also, boredom may not always have a reason. And, it is just alright! It is a good idea to make sure that your child isn’t hungry, sleepy or tired. There can be times when children use the word ‘bored’ to include a variety of states.

Offer your child ideas to an activity

After you have listened to them and understood things from your child’s perspective, you may try to prompt a list of activities which they usually like to do. It could be a word play game or an art work. Most often, something from the list may click and they may soon bounce back from their boredom.

If your child is constantly bored

Though there is no standard measure to how long or how frequently your child can feel bored, as a parent you would know the intensity of your child’s boredom if you closely watch your child. Your child feeling bored on a random day is quite different from feeling bored every other day. If you constantly hear your child feeling bored, it can be a sign for you to look into something in depth while dealing child’s boredom. Lack of parental attention, lack of company, lack of interesting play materials or something else may bog down your child from active playing. You may want to increase your depth and frequency of attentive listening to your child to get to the roots of your child’s boredom.