Mama, I'm Bored!

Mama, I’m Bored!!

How many times have we parents heard this cry? How many rainy days have passed without this being uttered in the distance? Not many, I can guess! Today, our children have a zillion things to occupy themselves with, yet they still say they are bored stiff, with nothing to do.

Our kids today have television with more channels that anyone ever needs. They can watch anything from nature to cartoons. There are channels for every sport imaginable, fashions and fads, music of every kind, (including Lawrence Welk reruns!), channels for old movies, new movies, foreign movies and movies they don’t need to watch. Channels for home improvements, home building, and interior design. I think every religion is represented on today’s TV airwaves. Isn’t it strange how we used to complain about reruns, but now there is even a special channel for them!

Our kids live in a computerized world. More and more homes are getting their own home computers. Look at how many computer games there are that only require a television and some connection cables. We started off with a game called PONG and look what has happened. There are so many new companies coming out, that the average parent can’t keep up with who’s who in games. There are television type, arcade type, and pocket sized. Games now have everything from monsters to automobiles, from gunfights to makeovers. They have more blood, guts and murder than any city in the United States. Computers have made possible the interactive stuffed animal and any kind of virtual world you can think of. Even the newer models of stereos, televisions, and VCR’s are computerized or at least computer compatible. As fast as technology is moving, items are often obsolete before you can get them home and plugged in!

Even the simplest of toys are different now. Our little girls have dolls that have colds, earaches, sore throats, diaper rash, and little sisters. They have eyes that cry, bodies that move, feet that walk, voice boxes that giggle, huge wardrobes, special diapers and food, and some even come with adoption papers or their very own pets! Our little boys have remote controlled, battery eating construction equipment that can move mountains, action figures that could have came from the army, and every intergalactic spaceship imagined, complete with aliens that talk, threaten, fly and squawk.

As you can see, most of the stuff I’ve listed requires very little, if any, imagination. What ever happened to Lincoln Logs and Tinkertoys? What about a good, strong, yellow Tonka truck? You remember, the ones with no motor? No batteries? Why can’t you seem to find a baby doll that does absolutely nothing? Do you know if there is a manufacturer for good old fashioned building blocks? I remember the brightly colored pieces of wood, sanded smooth and in many different shapes, packaged in a stiff cardboard box. No batteries here, either. Have you forgotten what a new box of crayons smells like? There is no sweeter perfume. How about the excitement of a brand new coloring book? Not the so called ones they have today that advertise the latest super hero or animated film, but the ones with pictures of animals, flowers, rainbows and children? Plain cheap butcher paper and finger-paint used to amuse kids for hours. On rainy days, kids would read classic tales of fun and adventure. Moby Dick, Oliver Twist, Call of the Wild, Tom Sawyer, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and Little Women were well known.

I also remember that activity we called playing outside. A child could run, hop, skip, jump, roll, and tumble to his hearts content. Hide and Seek, Hop-scotch, Freeze Tag, Red Rover, I Spy, Leap Frog, Simon Says, marbles, playing catch, or just finding pictures in the clouds. The possibilities were endless. Drawing in the sand, making mud pies, building forts, or just simply getting dirty was never boring.

Older kids would ride their bikes, skate, socialize, or organize impromptu ball games. Baseball, football, basketball or soccer, house rules, no special equipment, no leagues, no competing parents, everyone could play. Kids were their own referee’s. I think I liked it better that way.

Is it any wonder our kids are bored? They have so many things cluttering up their mind there seems to be no room for imagination. Have we given them so much that they now can accept nothing? Do they really need all the stuff we’ve pushed on them? I think our kids would be a lot less bored if we taught them about the outside, classic books, and creative things to do. But then again, how can we expect more from a child, when he sees his parents, remote in hand, channel surfing the television, complaining to each other, “There’s nothing on, I’M BORED”. Sound familiar?