GUNNISON, Utah — Do you have your summer plans all set? Are you stressed trying to figure out what to do with your kids that are now home from school the next few months?
Maybe you relieve some of that pressure and be okay with letting them get a little bored.
Amy Dalley is raising her five kids in the small town of Gunnison; her sons and daughters range in age from 2 years old to twelve.
"I have five kids and I just hope that we make good memories, and stay sane!" said Dalley.
Finding their fun on days like Tuesday includes playing in the backyard and jumping on the trampoline. Dalley says in years past, she’s tried filling up the summer calendar with all kinds of activities to keep her kids entertained all hours of the day.
"It was a lot of work on my end, that’s for sure," she said.
Even worse, Dalley said he children really didn’t know what to do if there was any downtime.
"My kids will come to me like, 'I’m bored,' and I know every parent has heard that, and every day you have a kid come to you and say I’m bored and especially during the summertime when they’re used to just going, going, going, they have a hard time to just be a little more relaxed," Dalley explained.
Rachel Blanchard is a life coach based out of Provo who helps consult clients from 10 years old and up, but one of the top issues at the moment is from parents who complain about their kids complaining they’re bored.
"It’s just going to be different, and when we accept it’s going to be different, we stop resisting it and pushing against it and start creating something new entirely rather than trying to recreate what we did over the school year," said Blanchard.
The question as posed by Blanchard is, "what’s the problem with them being bored? And if we find it’s an us problem then we can address that differently."
Blanchard says many times her clients feel like they’re a better mom if they’re scheduling continuous activities for their kids, but she added that studies show there’s often more growth in those quieter moments.
"When we allow our kids to be uncomfortable, when we allow them to be bored, when we allow them to be lonely, what we are teaching them that they can handle it," she explained.
Those lifelong skills help kids grow into happy, healthy adults.
"I think we could ask ourselves what could go right, we often fear what could go wrong if we’re bored," Blanchard added. "But what if we ask ourselves, what could go right?"
It's in the quiet moments where Blanchard said children create when they don’t have anything to distract them from their boredom.
"They play, they entertain themselves, they have great imaginations and I think when you allow them to be bored, they use their brains and are comfortable to be creative and make their own fun and play," said Dalley about her own children.
Through trial and error over the years, Dalley says she now plans a few things to look forward to as a family for their summer break, but also leaves a majority of their time unstructured and letting the kids find their own fun.
