gift of boredom.

     I actually have some spare time on a Saturday afternoon! I'm shocked. Ok, so maybe I don't really have any spare time, I'm just choosing to take some spare time and play on my computer, looking up old favorite songs on YouTube  (a few new favorites too). Man, late '80s & early '90s hairbands had a lot of... hair! Still good music.  Some favorites; Poison, Motley Crue (they just finished up their last tour, ever:( wish I could have went to see them one more time), Skid Row, Great White, could keep going on, but I won't.
     Found a new band, well, I don't think they are actually new, but new to me, called Glay. It's a bad from Japan, so I can only sing the lyrics they have in English. But they're great to listen to anyway. I do take the time to look up the translations, and the songs are really good. If you like hard rock, check them out.
     I should be outside working on getting our yard "winter ready." But, sometimes you just have to sit back and do nothing. I think we forget that in our society today. The importance of doing nothing important.
      I think as a homeschooling mom, I know how important it is for my kids to do nothing. Kids need time to just be. Allowing them time, when they are younger, to have nothing to do, let's them develop their imaginations. "Bionicals & Barbies" (this was a favorite game of my older 2 where the Barbies were taken prisoner in the toy castle by the Bionicals, then Ken and Buzz Lightyear would have to rescue them, it was quite funny to watch, I think they started that at 7 & 9) would have never come about if my kids hadn't gotten bored. "Three-girl & Six-boy" was the younger 2's favorite. In fact, right after I started homeschooling, when Ky or Jy would come tell me they were bored, I'd say "good." and walk away. It really confused them at first, but after awhile, they figured out they had to find something to do on their own. Flash forward to when they were a little older, if they came to complain they were bored, I'd give them a gross chore, like cat litter box cleaning or scrubbing toilets. I never really had too many complaints about being bored. Jk & Kt figured out that being bored was a good thing, since it meant you could go do what you wanted.
     When kids are older, preteens & teens, they are still developing their imaginations, but more than that, they are forming who they are. Time to think about what is important to them, what they want to be, what they want from life, are all really important things to think about. And they need time to do that. If kids are always on the go, they don't have time to do that. Then they start becoming what others tell them to be, not who God wants them to be, who they are comfortable being. I've noticed that when kids start becoming what others want, that's when they rebel -- hard. All kids rebel, they need to. But watching different t.v. shows, liking different music, that kind of rebelling is good. Drugs and sex, that's hard rebelling, and none of us wants that for our kids. That's a long hard road to travel.
     So be sure to take the time to give your kids bored times. Even if it means not signing up for that class. Give them the gift of boredom.
     So, for me personally, even though there is a bunch of stuff I should be doing right now, none of is actually pressing, so I'm taking some time to walk down memory lane and enjoy some good tunes, even if hair was a bit too big. :) I can always work tomorrow. And if tomorrow never comes, I won't be sad about how I spent my last afternoon.
blessings,
mamaAthena