My kids are bored. We have every ball known to mankind, a hoop, bikes, skateboards, skates, over 200 matchbox cars with tracks, four different gaming consoles, a computer, a bouncy house, cable tv, the internet, netflix, and an in home library with at least 400 kid-friendly texts.
Still, my kids are bored.
The problem is not even as simple as ‘they have too much to do’ the problem is a lack of attention span coupled with the need for constant direction. They rather I lead the activities all day long, telling them exactly what to do and when vs. have the freedom to take advantage of the ridiculous amount of stuff they have access to here. As a parent it is hard to be ‘on’ 24 hrs a day–especially when you work from home. I cannot get any work done because I am far too busy keeping them on track and out of trouble. I’ve tried the ‘let them do their own thing’ method and the result tends to be me walking out of my office after thirty minutes to a wrecked house. In fact, I slipped upstairs for a 10 minute write-a-thon with the full expectation that they are going to wreck everything in their path. I can still hear the seven year old screaming his tiny head off as I write. His voice is the loudest and his needs the greatest. I suppose that is a fundamental part of being the baby.
This behavior has to change. They are still young enough to learn a new way to act. It is still important enough that they find out how to deal amongst themselves while the grown folk are working. At this point there is clearly an expectation that I’m going to be their so-called Cruise Director for the rest of eternity, and I don’t want that job. There are more important aspects to being dad than that.
Some Thoughts:
- I created a new category. I call it ‘rants’ and I think it will be very populated in the coming weeks. Rants make me feel better, just like writing makes me feel better. Therefore when I write and rant the effect doubles!
- I’m going back to pursuing the Torathae. I stepped away yet again, because I was struggling with the races and where to start. I think I’ll start with a map and abandon this focal notion of what the world looks like that seems to be keeping me in a non-progressive state.