What's a Parent's Role?

Take our Authoritative Parenting Test

Find a family therapist near me

Our urge to fix boredom may be driven by our own anxiety.

Adults struggle with downtime just as much.

True regulation starts with us regulating ourselves as parents.

We’ve all been here. You’re standing in the kitchen, dinner is half-cooked, and your child wanders in, drops his arms like lead weights, and lets out those two dreaded words: “I’m bored.”

We all know that we should encourage our children to come up with ideas about what they could do instead of reaching for an iPad, phone, computer, or video game. But, let’s be real – saying something like, “What do you think you can do?” or “I’m sure you’ll come up with a great idea,” means that you’re going to have a child or teen or even a young adult who is going to look at you and repeat, “I’m bored.”

When our kids say those two dreaded words, “I’m bored,” a tiny, panic-driven alarm goes off in your brain. As a parent, you may feel the urge to fix that boredom and to offer a project or set up a play date or take them somewhere “fun.” Most of the time, our ideas are shot down with a dramatic groan or grumble. We all want to grow creative, self-sufficient kids, but we also feel the need to scramble and “fix” our child's boredom. What if that boredom is not about their development at all, but is rather about our own low tolerance for their temporary........

© Psychology Today