Shower Thoughts with Shelly

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“I just don’t know how I’m going to keep them entertained for two months.”

“They need to be busy, otherwise they’ll get into trouble.”

“I’m so tired of hearing ‘I’m bored’ from these kids!”

Hey friend… stop right there. I’m going to tell you something, and you might have a hard time with this, but hear me out, and take in the whole message. You ready?

You do not need to keep your kids busy all the time. Your kids would greatly benefit from learning healthy solutions to their feelings of boredom. You are setting your kids up for a lifetime if you can help to foster their ability to entertain themselves at home.

So many adults don’t even have the ability to entertain themselves. Grown men and women that sit at home and simply do not have hobbies or any idea how to pass downtime. So many who have no idea what to do with themselves except for sit in front of a television and watch mindlessly.

Help your kids learn what they enjoy. Maybe you have a budding artist, or a future engineer. It’s possible that the young person growing up in your house is destined to be a world-renowned chef! Let’s have the kids paint, make card houses, bake cookies. Remind them that all the videos they watch online are videos of actual people doing real things in real life.

But what you’re not doing is any favors for your kids by constantly working to entertain them.

We must, as a society, have the ability to look at our own two hands and say to ourselves, “I’m bored… I will now find a way to entertain myself.”

You should have the ability to search for something within your home to occupy yourself. Leaving home is not the first answer to entertainment. There are untold amounts of handcrafts a person can learn, books to be read, gardens that can be planted. Children and adults alike should take part in these activities, because they’re good for you!

Don’t sit in front of the television, get outside! Get some of that natural vitamin D and let your body use it. Let the kids teach themselves how to look for bugs in the grass.

Don’t overschedule the kids, don’t constantly be searching for a place to go instead of loving the space you have, where you sleep. Some people call it mindfulness, some people say gratitude, and still others just say it’s life.

Start where you are, with what you have, and go from there. You’d be surprised at the skills you have already. Take the time to look around you, but not at the wide world, at your own four walls, and use your imagination to see what amazing thing you can do next.