I grew up on Kauai in Hawaii in the 1970’s, a hippie child with few possessions and no TV. I firmly believe that free time in nature along with a lot of reading, provided the right soil for a creative mind. As a kid I made my own board games, built tree forts, established elaborate invented worlds, and created entire naturalistic neighborhoods for my Barbies. They were the original Real Housewives of Kauai, right down to haircuts I gave them and handsewn clothes. Not to mention a few burnings at the stake for Barbie witchcraft—but we won’t go there.
I married an amazing creative man, and when we were raising our children in the Midwest, in a WASP-y area where kids’ days were scheduled from dawn to dusk with “enrichment” activities like music lessons, gymnastics, French and soccer, I put my foot down in the face of massive peer pressure from other moms. “Our kids won’t learn to think for themselves. They’ll never learn to problem solve and entertain themselves. They need to be BORED to do that,” I told my husband.
I was in the middle of my undergrad work in psychology, and nowhere did I read this—but I knew it to be true from my own experience. Creativity is a response to an absence of other stimulation and a way of problem solving. It grows best in an atmosphere of encouragement, provision of basic materials needed, and open stretches of unscheduled time when the expectation is, ENTERTAIN YOURSELF, or SOLVE THIS PROBLEM.
So as a family, we decided the kids would only have ONE other scheduled activity besides school at any given time. Their playground was the outdoors, provisions were art and building materials, non-electronic toys and the luxury of unscheduled time. They heard what my parents had said when I complained: “well, if you’re bored, you must have time for some chores.”
I said that and added a twist—“Boredom is the sign of a tiny mind.”
They learned all right, just as me and my sisters had—to make things up, and build things, and mastermind grand games with elaborate rules, and to be independent, critical thinkers. I feel passionately that by overscheduling kids, and overstimulating them with electronic media, creativity and critical thinking are being lost. Understimulating them with a lack of opportunities is also crippling and tends to be what educators focus on.
This wonderful article http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html talks about the lowering scores on creativity assessments in our standards-obsessed schools, and the neural tasks involved with creativity. They define creativity as “alternating between divergent and convergent thinking to arrive at original and useful ideas.”
The article discusses the elements necessary to encourage creativity in schools, and adds:
“Having studied the childhoods of highly creative people for decades, Claremont Graduate University’s Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (author of one of my favorite books ever, FLOW) and University of Northern Iowa’s Gary G. Gute found highly creative adults tended to grow up in families embodying opposites. Parents encouraged uniqueness, yet provided stability. They were highly responsive to kids’ needs, yet challenged kids to develop skills. This resulted in a sort of adaptability: in times of anxiousness, clear rules could reduce chaos—yet when kids were bored, they could seek change, too. In the space between anxiety and boredom was where creativity flourished.”
Summer is a ripe opportunity for creativity. Nothing beats a wide open afternoon with nothing to do, and nothing to do it with besides a pile of sticks, a hammer and nails, and a box of old costume jewelry. Out of such things, worlds are made.
This is great advice. When our kids were little we didn’t have a TV. The imaginary play was marvelous. We spent so much time reading books–and sure enough the next day they would be playing whatever theme we had read about the day before.
Most of my kids are teens and older now–I miss those days. But one is a painter and two love to write–so it is still there in another form!
I agree Toby. My parenting as a child was just about invisible. We were out of the house from day-break to dusk every day of the holidays. I made up all kinds of games, and rules to play those games by (which were always being altered) I had no after school activities, and everyone I know who did – I’ve discovered has a real problem with imagination and thinking “outside” of the box. I made my own entertainment. Read the books I wanted to, wrote stories, plays, drew, but most of all spent hours and hours just being alone with my imagination.
I don’t have much to thank my parents for – but leaving me to myself actually turned out to be something I can.
My wife was one who did have her “spare” time…???? taken up by her mother finding things for her to do – clubs to join, instruments to play. And my wife has real problems with anything that isn’t structured. She finds relaxing hard work. But I’m teaching her slowly to unlearn all that was drummed into her.
Idleness leads to thinking for oneself. Its a gift.
totally agree. Yeah I can’t believe how many kids are in tons of activities here. and it’s so expensive, besides time-consuming. Of course I probably spend that much in keeping art supplies on hand, lol. We’ve always tried to do ‘real toys’ for the kids too – wooden trains, lincoln logs, k’nex, legos…..stuff that doesn’t need batteries and inspires creativity and THINKING!!!! The kids have a few friends who come over and don’t know what to do without the tv on. They’re just ‘bored’ and can’t figure out how to play with toys that require some imagination :/ It’s really sad. I even made a chore jar a few weeks ago to pull chores out of when my kids say they’re bored, LOL.
I just read a couple of other articles about the same thing recently.
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/current-events/op-ed-blog/22043-what-are-smartphones-doing-to-us
http://www.culture-making.com/post/being_bored_is_a_precious_thing
It’s just sad that people see you as the odd one when you make the choice to live intentionally and give your kids freedom and space and let them make a mess to do something silly. Alysa has her room covered in paper dolls that she made out of construction paper and so her floor is a mess. But she’s having so much fun and creating! I should post a picture. But I’m sure some people would be like ‘what the heck’ LOL.
Thanks, Sally, Andrew and Barbara. I talked this over with my daughter, age 21 and a cell/molecular biology major yesterday and she agrees that our free time, low-tech lifestyle during formative years helped her develop the ability to think of new questions to ask. In science, it’s all about the hypothesis. Our son’s creativity is abundantly clear a few pages back (!) and I think we should start a counterculture of creativity as a prerequisite to academic and excellence in life.
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Great stuff, Toby. Good luck on the new blog, it looks great!! Fun stuff.
I think that “bored” is a highly misused and misunderstood word. When teachers hear it in the classroom, they know that kids often mean “This is too hard”, or sometimes, “This is not relevant to my life.” So, a little gentle guidance is key. The same with home activities. Give them the tools, and off they go.
Hi Toby,
I agree with you entirely about lack of possessions leading to creativity. Whenever I travel in Africa I am amazed at how the small children make wonderful toys out of bits of string, cardboard, wire or anything to hand. My own opinion is that most people can’t stand boredom and that is why they will do anything to put an end to it, whether that is going to talk to a friend or getting busy with one’s mind and/or one’s hands. Humans are problem-solving animals. The fact that we have so many objects and sources of information to fill our minds means, on the one hand, that we need never be bored again, but, on the other hand, there is a danger that lack of boredom may mean some people who would have been creative in the not-so-distant past will pass on by without leaving books or other artefacts behind them and we will all be the worse for that.
Thanks John, you’re so right about Africa. New National Geographic article about the “missing link” recently found in Africa, the seat of our origins. Makes you wonder what we might have lost along the way.
Hello.
I agree. For me, boredom is really space and time. The space and time needed to let new ideas bubble up to the surface. My mom raised us with the phrase “Only boring people get bored”. It’s another riff on what you said about tiny minds. Interesting, or at least interested people can always find something to do. 
Thanks Elizabeth. So far no one has said electronic media are adding too much positive to the mix.
What a great resource!
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Stumbled upon your piece on boredom and creativity, Toby. Couldn’t agree more. In fact, tells me to cut a few items off the things-to-do list and summer agenda I have been preparing for my son already – he is only one and i have a couple of years to trim the list further I guess. Instead, giving him a taste of boredom would be the best thing to do – along with a piece of parental anecdote: “Even in the most barren of summers, your father was never bored!” Latest research proves boredom is good for you – check out this interesting take on http://theoneminuteblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/so-boring-its-inspiring.html
Thanks for popping by and I hope you have a GREAT summer!
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Help, is it too late? We are banning gaming except on weekends, logging out the computer and hiding the TV remotes (again) for our 14 year old son. I agree that kids don’t play outside like they used to and this son doesn’t really know what to do with himself without media (brother doesn’t share this problem.) The ban comes because he is not doing his homework or chores and spends too much time on media when he comes home from school (and we are at work.) He does not like to read, is not involved in activities, does not have a creative interest. The only thing he likes to do is hang out with friends, and sometimes they make action videos. I’m female so maybe it’s different but as a kid imagined and involved my barbies, wrote poems, drew, read, imagined I was in roller skating pageants, learned to crochet, etc. I also nested and organized my room and later my family’s kitchen drawers or moved furniture around. All this sounds lame to my son. I can’t solve all his problems or entertain him all the time. All I can do is make suggestions and give chores. Just wondering if you all think I’ve passed the window of time to encourage creativity or outside interests for this child.
This is a really tough one.
By teen years, I’d be focusing on sports or other activities that will tire him out and work on prosocial skills and identity formation, the tasks of adolescence-different tasks than childhood. Keep controlling the media all you can to help him turn to those outlets out of boredom if nothing else.
But, in some ways the window has passed–don’t know any 14 yo who goes out in the backyard and entertains themselves with sticks and leaves. Unless, of course, they’re building a fire!
Good luck and thanks for your thoughtful questions.