What to do when your child says I’m Bored
Inside: What to do when your child says I’m Bored. 3 solutions to when my kid is always bored. Caution on what not to say when kids complain of being bored. And A I’m bored solutions list.
Kids often keep complaining I’m Bored! All aged kids do that. And it’s rather difficult to listen to it, especially since you feel very busy all the time; and kids who don’t have any responsibility complain of being bored!
And honestly, it’s even hard to believe them when your kids keep saying they’re bored in spite of all the toys they’re got!
Anywho whether your child’s complain of boredom is real or hidden. The point is they’re going to complain and we need a constructive way to help them deal with this boredom problem.
What to do when your child says I’m Bored
You don’t need to fix your child’s I’m Bored Problem!
Simple Solution —Help your kids brainstorm themselves out of their boredom.
Encouraging kids to come out of boredom is usually possible with little motivation and brief interaction with them.
Parents often make a mistake that they start giving their kids options on what to do, like — “Go do LEGOs”, “Go play in your room”, “Read a book”, “help me clean the dishwasher”. Which usually get shot down quite instantly, and kids tell parents that is not what they want to do.
The reason being parents are trying to convey something that is good for their children AND kids like to do what they want to do.
Rather encourage them to brainstorm their way own out of boredom, and you’ll see very soon they’ll stop telling you they’re bored, but will start finding their way out of it!
Help them Brainstorm by asking questions about their boredom.
Questions like —
- I hear you’re bored — what shall we do?
- Can you think or something that’s fun?
- Let’s take turns at finding fun things to do, so you suggest some, let them come up with some!
- What were you doing when in the afternoon or yesterday.
So you see, you’re not giving them options, but rather helping them come up with a solution!
Simply acknowledge them, you don’t need to fix it.
Nor give it a lot of attention or weight or they’ll say that every time they need your attention.
Reduce your kid’s stimulus
A lot of time when kids say they’re bored they mean — they don’t know what to actually work with amongst so many things they have to keep them occupied.
So reducing a stimulus for them works; a few options to limit their stimulus if they complain of beig bored all the time are —
- Ask them to bring some work out of their playroom on the dining table or to the living room so they can focus on just one work.
- Try rotating the toys, so the toys ‘feel’ new when they see them after long. (I do toy rotation in our yes space a lot!)
- Ask them to take a game to their own room or a separate room in the house where they can focus by themselves, if there are too many people in the living room!
Help kids make a “I’m Bored” Solutions List
The conundrum is if you tell you kids what to do when they say I’m bored; they don’t want to do that. Neither are they cognizant enough at that time to figure out what they want to do.
An easy solution to this I’m bored probelm is — Make a I’m Bored Solution List. And make this like at a sane time
This What’s the solution to I’m Bored list is just the things your kids come up with what they would like to do when they feel bored.
Things like, color, paint, play xyz game, open ended toys etc.
The only rule is — these solutions have to come from the kids themselves at a time when they’re NOT bored.
So on a weekend after breakfast, maybe you and your kids can site and come up with a list like this.
Then stick this list on the fridge or make a I’m Bored Jar, where you write these solutions in chits and put then in the jar, and take out one chit and do that thing when they’re bored!
Small Caution on what NOT to say!
There is one NO NO to — What to do when your child says I’m Bored.
The worst thing I’ve heard parents say to their kids when they said “I’m bored” is — “Only boring people get bored”.
NEVER say that, no matter how angry you’re feeling. People who’ve been told that have it stuck to them even through their adulthood, it’s straight-up damaging.
In fact I just had a long discussion with a reader who commented to me on a related pin on Pinterest asking me for the statics of how saying — “you’re bored because you’re boring ” is damaging to kids.
In my opinion, it’s damaging because it’s mean and almost like bullying. If you would not say “you’re boring” to an adult; there is no way this can be acceptable to be said to a child!
Saying you’re bored because you’re boring is damaging and it needs no proof, just some empathy!
Summary of — “What to do when your child says I’m Bored”
It can be difficult when kids keep pestering you saying “I’m Bored” a lot, especially when you’re really busy parenting them! But this is what parenting is!
Look for the real reason behind their boredom, a lot of them kids are actually just short of words.
Just remember when kids say that it’s don’t think in the lines of fixing it; but rather acknowledge it, and let them brainstorm through it or if it feels like the I’m bored complain is coming more often, then be prepared with an I’m bored solutions list.
Part 2 – 6 Hidden Meaning to I’m Bored Complain from your child.
Part 2 – 10 positive Responses to I’m Bored
