I have had the same thought myself. I remember being occasionally bored well into my twenties. Then I acquired a house, and a family, and numerous other diversions and responsibilities, and frankly can't remember the last time I didn't know what to do with myself.
However, from observations of my 9 year old son, I can confirm that children do still get bored. In the case of my boy, the boredom usually kicks in shortly after we tell him that he's spent enough time staring at a screen for a while. But even when he is allowed unrestricted access to the PC, Wii and TV, he still gets bored eventually. Does he have too few things to occupy him, or too much free time?
Considering how many other toys and games he has available, and thinking back to my own youth, I believe it's the latter. My problem was not that I didn't have enough things I could do, but that I didn't have enough things I had to do. Without those jobs and responsibilities that nowadays chew up my free time into such pitifully small chunks, I felt like I had all the leisure time in the world. And how can you really appreciate something that you can also take for granted?
I have had the same thought myself. I remember being occasionally bored well into my twenties. Then I acquired a house, and a family, and numerous other diversions and responsibilities, and frankly can't remember the last time I didn't know what to do with myself.
ReplyDeleteHowever, from observations of my 9 year old son, I can confirm that children do still get bored. In the case of my boy, the boredom usually kicks in shortly after we tell him that he's spent enough time staring at a screen for a while. But even when he is allowed unrestricted access to the PC, Wii and TV, he still gets bored eventually. Does he have too few things to occupy him, or too much free time?
Considering how many other toys and games he has available, and thinking back to my own youth, I believe it's the latter. My problem was not that I didn't have enough things I could do, but that I didn't have enough things I had to do. Without those jobs and responsibilities that nowadays chew up my free time into such pitifully small chunks, I felt like I had all the leisure time in the world. And how can you really appreciate something that you can also take for granted?