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The “I’m Bored” Buster
- Alex Maksimovich
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
Any parent has probably heard the phrase “I’m bored” from their kids at least 100 times per week, and I’m no different. Which is to say I would always complain that I was bored, not that I’m a parent. And from my experience, I just remember being bored. Sitting around, not doing a whole lot except watching the dog sleep in his bed. It wasn’t for a lack of gadgets, gizmos and toys that I was bored, I just couldn’t think of everything fun in my life all at once. I mean, who could remember how much fun LEGO is when it’s stored away in the garage? How could I think of baking some brownies when I’m looking around my bedroom for something to do?
Kids are the most fun people I have ever met. Able to turn mundane situations into some really fun and memorable experiences. A stick is somehow a wand. A rock becomes a magic crystal. A blanket somehow turns you invisible… (hang on, this is sounding a lot like Harry Potter). The point is, that some things that I could have never thought twice about being anything but absolutely boring, have somehow become the core part of a child’s playtime. The leaf is the key to the kingdom. The floor is lava. The tree is a monster coming to get you. It doesn’t matter what it is, it’s fun to them.
On the other hand, kids are also the quickest to get bored. That big toy box I had growing up? Somehow never seemed to like any of the toys. All the board games we still own from before I was born? Never thought to play them, they live on the other side of the house. There’s a whole list of excuses your kids could come up with for why they don’t find their toys fun. These ones were just my experiences.
But, I hope I’ve laid the foundations of this article. My point is that kids are sometimes bored and sometimes they just need solutions. That’s where the “I’m bored” book comes in. You can keep reading on to hear about the inspiration and the how to guide, or if you’re like me, you can just skip down, past the instructions to the download link.
Inspiration
My inspiration comes from two different parts of my life.
Firstly, I was noticing that I am a project starter. I love to start learning new things, have an idea for a project, or find something around the house that I want to do, but just haven’t gotten around to actually doing any of those things yet. So, I created my “bored box”. Now, it’s not big enough to fit in all the big pieces of wood for the diy staircase I want to make, for example, but I can put in all the small jobs I want to do. For example, I own a 3D printer and a goal of mine is to make a magnetic 3D printed chess board that is in the exact style I want. So, I put in my old 3D printed chess set in as a reminder. There’s also pencils for when I eventually get around to finishing that colouring book, a sudoku book to finish off and… I won’t keep going. Pair this with a list on my phone of the more “conceptual” stuff (like the staircase I mentioned), and I can never be bored… in theory at least.
Secondly, I am a weekly listener of The WAN Show. At the time of writing, it is co-owned by the hosts, Linus and Luke. Linus, father of 3, was talking on one of the episodes a few years back and he brought up his document. His doc had all the different rooms in his house, broken into categories (upstairs, downstairs, outside. Then into kitchen, backyard, bedroom, etc) and in each row was just something to do in that space. He said it was for when his kids came to him saying “I’m bored”. Linus wouldn’t take that for an answer and so created a solution.
Taking these ideas together, I set out to make a solution for the every day dad to use.
Solution
So, here’s my solution. Taking mostly inspiration from Linus’ idea, I’ve created the “I’m bored” book. It’s a free resource available here, on our website. It’s a pretty simple concept, but one that should hopefully inspire your kids to take action, before coming to you complaining they’re bored.
How to Guide
If you want the most simple guide, print the whole resource off and fill it out, you’ll get the gist. If you want more information on how it’s most effective, keep reading.
Print out one page for each different room or space in your house (that’s appropriate. I don’t think you need one for the bathroom)
On each sheet, write a list with as many different ideas for things to do in that room or space. They can be as specific or vague as you want. Whatever is most helpful for your family. If you run out of space, print another sheet for that room and bundle them together.
Staple the book together!
You’ve now created your very own “I’m bored book”. We’ve made some generic pages, prefilled with some rooms, spaces and appropriate things to do. But to make your family the true author, we’d recommend just printing out a bunch of copies of the last page (the blank one).
You don’t need this book
The heading here is a little bit of clickbait, but I wanted to make sure you kept on reading. This book should be the start to figure out what works for your family. You might keep using this system forever, and that’s ok! You might be like me and have a “bored box” somewhere in your house. You might be like Linus and bring out the Excel champion within you. Or you might have some other way of doing it. Here are just some other suggestions off the top of my head.
Cut each line up and put it in a jar. Pick a random one when you’re bored.
Instead of rooms, have categories of things to do, i.e. “crafty”, “sporty”, etc
Put them all on one list, and roll a die to determine what to do.
Whatever you do, make sure it works for your family, that’s all that really matters.
DADDING IN ACTION |
Tonight, print out the "I'm bored" book and fill it in with your kids |