Here’s a scene you can probably relate to.
Your child comes home from school, puts away their backpack and has a snack.
A few minutes after completing their after school routine you hear the two words that all parents dread.
Your child looks at you and emphatically proclaims, “I’m bored!”
You immediately start to go through a laundry list of possible things they can do to keep busy.
However, to each and every one of your seemingly brilliant ideas you are met with the following phrase by your child.
Over and over they keep saying, “I’m not in the mood of that.”
As you begin to run out of ideas you start to picture what’s waiting for you around life’s next corner.
Your child may start to annoy one of their siblings, or perhaps do something silly like begin jumping on the furniture, or maybe just mope around as they try to make you feel guilty that they are so bored.
If you get really lucky they may do two or even all three of these things.
Okay so what can you do to get your child to tuck away their boredom and put their wonderful smile back on their face.
Well, during the cold winter months this can be extremely challenging.
Being that they are cooped up inside, because let’s be real who wants to go out when it’s freezing cold, it’s much easier for boredom to set in.
However with spring now in full bloom and the weather continuing to warm up, you now have the perfect anti-boredom antidote.
It’s called the Outdoors!
Each time your child says, “I’m bored, ” all you have to say is the following.
“I have a great idea, why don’t you go outside and play.”
If they’re younger you may have to actually take them outside but regardless of your child’s age the warmer spring weather becomes your trusted ally in overcoming boredom.
Additionally, you can also be ahead of the curve and outsmart them.
You know your children better than anyone, so rather than waiting until they say they’re bored to recommend that they head outside, you can be proactive.
As soon as you begin to sense that those two words will be uttered by them really soon, you can immediately jump in with the wonderful idea that they go outside and play.
By doing it this way, you will ensure that those words won’t even make it to the surface.
Once they begin running around outside all thoughts of boredom will melt away in the warm spring weather.
Suggesting this healthy outlet for your children will not only make things easier for you but also allow them to comfortably get that excess energy out of their system.
This will be a win-win for you and your children, as well as perhaps their younger sister who may avoid having her hair pulled by a bored sibling.
Of course you need to be realistic that despite all your best efforts every so often your children will still say, “I’m bored.”
I mean after all they’re still children and if we’re being honest with ourselves we all said this phrase once upon a time when we were children.
However this aside, with the arrival of May you now have a wonderful spring related parenting tool to make those two dreaded words be heard far less often in your home.
As an added bonus, with the warm weather likely here for several months you’ll be able to keep using this all-important parenting tool for quite a while.
They say “April showers bring May flowers.”
Well guess what, in addition to flowers May also brings a wonderful opportunity to have your children wave bye-bye to boredom, by simply encouraging them to go outside, run around and enjoy the warm weather.
