School holiday boredom is a blessing not a curse for Christian families

Andrea Zanin from Kids Matter shares why Christian parents should resist the rush to fill every moment and instead let unstructured time open the door for faith and creativity

It’s that time of year when headlines like How to Combat Summer Boredom and Ten Ways to Keep Your Kids Busy During the Holidays start popping up everywhere. Like spare time is a bad thing! I don’t know about you, but I could sure do with some. There’s irony in wishing extra minutes into our own days whilst filling every last one for our kids. When I was growing up, if I dared mention the “B” word in my home I got a helpful, “there are dishes in the sink, aren’t there?” at which point I’d make a quick exit! My parents whole modus operandi was to be as unhelpful as possible.

So, what did we do back when we were bored and the internet wasn’t a thing? Well, options were normally: mooch around the garden, knock on the neighbour’s door, stare at all the toys we didn’t want to play with, find a sibling to annoy, lie on the grass, count ants, people watch out the window. Wherever you might have landed, universally priceless was the unoccupied space in your mind as you traversed the nooks and crannies of finding something to do.

there is freedom in having nothing to do

Space is a beautiful thing – none more so than headspace, which gives us license to think and dream and discover. As we grow into life, and adulting becomes a reality, ’headspace’ emerges as the proverbial needle in the haystack – impossible to find. If it is, by some miracle, located, it must be protected – and not just for us but if we have kids, for them too! In a world harassed not only by choice but the pressure to fill space and time, boredom becomes a ……