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Friday
Apr102009

"Mommy, I'm Bored" ....solutions! Carnival Posts (Part 4)

Every parent has heard this before. But some kids are bored more often than others. For a child that is always bored, there is something missing in life. Often parents think what is missing is peers. They need friends to play with. While friends can be fun and healthy in the right doses, they are not a cure for boredom. According to Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Mate in the book Hold On To Your Kids:
What are the true causes of boredom? The void that is felt in boredom is not a lack of stimulation or social activity, as is typically assumed. Children become bored when their attachment instincts are not sufficiently engaged and when their sense of self does not emerge to fill this void. It is like being in neutral, on hold, waiting for life to begin... In other words, the hole that is usually experienced as boredom is the result of a double void of attachment and emergence: the child is not with someone with whom he can attach and feel comfortable, and, on the other hand, he lacks sufficient curiousity and imagination to spend time creatively on his own.

So how can you help your child say goodbye to boredom? Start by fostering a strong attachment, much of which can come from play (see Beyond the Baby B's: Attachment Through Play). But what to play? Parents are not all entertainment experts and we can often run out of ideas. It isn't our job to keep our children entertained all of the time, but we can help to spice up their world and introduce them to new things that will help spark their creativity and imagination.

To do that, check out the ideas in some of these great posts that were written for the Carnival:

Now you can't complain that you're bored anymore! ;)

The Carnival of Play Continues…

Did you like these posts? If so, give them a Stumble, tweet about them, share them on your blog!

There is lots more to come! If I haven’t featured your post yet, thank you for posting it and it will be featured during the carnival. I am doing a few theme-based posts, so if your post fits into a theme that I have planned, I may have pegged it for a specific post.

If you haven't participated yet, it isn't too late! Go back to the introductory post to learn about all the ways you can get involved.
« Arts & Crafts Play | Main | Is unstructured play too dangerous? »

Reader Comments (1)

Awesome collection of sites, seriously some of the very best online ! Your carnival has been wonderful and focused perfectly on developmentally appropriate play. Good Job!

Thanks for putting it all together!

April 11, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAllie
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