I'm Bored. What Do I Do?

“I’m bored.” You know that phrase, right? It comes after you’ve told your kids no more screen time. Usually, it’s within 10 minutes of the dictate. Here’s the usual conversation.

“I’m bored. There’s nothing to do.”

“You can read --- you know, summer reading?”

“Naw.”

“You can go outside and find a friend.”

“Nobody’s home.”

“You can ride your bike, shoot hoops, toss the baseball, take the dog for a walk.”

“No, Mom! That’s boring.”

“You can go play with the 10,000 toys in the basement. If you don’t want to use them, we’ll give them to some kids who will.”

“Mom! Don’t say that.”

“Let’s just go down there and start packing some of the things you don’t use.”

“I use EVERYTHING!”

So we march down, with a big black trash bag and I start asking about one thing or another. You know what happened. Nothing was sanctioned to go, and two boys played for hours with the blocks they got when they were little and the action heroes that sit in a bin for weeks just waiting for boy-directed combat.

I know we parents look to Aug. 30 as our own little holiday (see Staples commercial), but there’s part of me that will miss that phrase once school starts. “I’m bored,” means they’re home with me on a humid summer morning after making pancakes at 8 a.m.  Soon the schedule will fill dramatically and we’ll spend most of our “quality time” in the car. There’s a lot we like about the start of the school year and all the activities it brings, but I’m going to savor these last few weeks before the new expression starts to be uttered: “Have you finished your homework?”