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Let children be bored. Many parents today feel that a good childhood is a busy one. After school, children are taken from music lessons to swimming classes to extra maths, and in the few free moments that remain, a tablet or a television is always within reach. The fear behind all this activity is understandable: we do not want our children to fall behind, and we do not want them to be unhappy. Yet in filling every hour, we may be taking away something valuable.
Boredom is uncomfortable, but it is not harmful. On the contrary, it is often the starting point of creativity. A child who has nothing to do and no screen to look at will, after a period of complaining, usually find something: a story to invent, a den to build from cushions, a game with rules that change every five minutes. In these moments, children learn to rely on their own imagination rather than waiting to be entertained. Bit by bit, they discover what they actually enjoy, rather than what adults have chosen for them.
Consider how children learn to play. Nobody teaches a four-year-old how to turn a cardboard box into a spaceship. The idea comes from within, and the pleasure comes from making it work. When every activity is planned and supervised by adults, children have fewer chances to make their own decisions, to try things and fail, and to try again in a different way.
It is also worth asking what we, as adults, are modelling. If parents reach for their phones at the first sign of a quiet moment, children learn that silence is something to be filled immediately. A family that is comfortable sitting together without constant stimulation teaches a different lesson: that it is fine simply to think, to daydream or to notice the world around you.
None of this means that lessons and screens are bad. Learning a musical instrument or a sport can bring great joy and discipline, and good programmes can open children's eyes to new ideas. The problem is not activity itself but the belief that every empty moment is wasted. A sensible routine includes both organised activities and unstructured time in which nothing in particular is supposed to happen.
So the next time a child says, "I'm bored," it may be wiser not to rush in with a solution. Instead, we might simply reply, "I'm sure you'll think of something." More often than we expect, they will.