Darren Levin: Boredom won’t kill kids. It actually might do them good

Let’s not be too quick to alleviate boredom during school holidays. It forces kids to daydream and create a version of fun that isn’t spoonfed to them, writes Darren Levin.

If the slow build up of traffic and “back to school” signs in Officeworks and parliament weren’t enough of a giveaway, we’ve officially entered the holiday home stretch.

That’s right – in just 18 more days you’ll be able to leave your kids in the care of someone far more qualified than you to look after them. That’s when the ‘real’ holiday begins, just kicking back, sipping an interrupted cuppa Joe in a relaxing, child free environment called work.

Until then you’ve got to figure out a way to keep your kids from destroying your last remaining shred of sanity.

By this point you’ve probably spent your inheritance on all manner of holiday programs, hit up more bowling alleys than the Big Lebowski, rinsed every streamed service, and developed calluses from too much UNO. So why not take a beautiful coastal road trip?

That’s the kind of lateral thinking Cassie and Chris Langan applied when they suggested a drive to the quaint Victorian coastal town of Warrnambool.

The response from their children was predicable.

It’s official – we’re at the point where school holidays are dragging. Picture: iStock

“That’s boring,” they said, presumably peering up from their console after a 17th-hour Fortnite binge. “I don’t want to go.”

So the Langans did what any self respecting modern parents would do – they brought along the kid that protested the least and their modem instead. I’m not sure if you’ve ever been on holiday with an inanimate object before, but if you had a dad growing up you’d know what to expect.

In the first Facebook post to go viral since Chewbacca mom, Cassie and Chris documented all the fun Warrnambool adventures their “most over worked family member” experienced on its most action-packed day since the NBN was installed. It caught some rays on the beach. It ate fish and chips. It visited a model train display. It played (and probably lost) some rigged carny games.

Back home their 17- and 10-year-old children were even more bored than they were when they were thinking about the road trip.

An unrealistic depiction of a family enjoying a road trip. Picture: iStock

“When I showed my 10 year old the photos he said that it wasn’t fair — that we hate him and love the modem more — and stormed off to his room,” Cassie Langan told America’s Today show. (Yes, this story made it all the way to the States.) “Our 17-year-old was so bored she actually had cleaned her room and spent time with her younger brother.”

There’s a lesson in this. Faced with an afternoon with no internet, something magical happens to kids and they snap into action. They clean their room. They walk the dog. They draw pictures of their beloved modem. They interact with their siblings in a way that doesn’t involve teaming up to kill baddies in a violent video game.

There’s inherent value in a bit of boredom – it forces kids to daydream, to direct their gaze inwardly, to think outside the square and create a version of fun that isn’t spoonfed to them. It’s why this quote from psychologist and author Dr Vanessa Lapointe still resonates with me. She says children need to sit in the “nothingness of boredom in order to arrive at an understanding of who they are”.

You don’t have to take your modem on a roadtrip to facilitate that. But then again, doesn’t everyone deserve a holiday?

Darren Levin is a columnist for RendezView.com.au