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Conventional wisdom is that it's good to allow kids to be bored (by which this generally means: not intervening as a parent with an activity) as this will compe

Conventional wisdom is that it's good to allow kids to be bored (by which this generally means: not intervening as a parent with an activity) as this will compel them to take action, creatively or otherwise. It just might not be the actions parents expect. You can take away the tv, but that doesn't automatically mean your kid will color or build a fort. I think "spontaneity" is informed in large part by habit. If you teach a kid to build things, how to draw, read, etc, they might be more inclined to explore this out of their own volition. I mostly daydreamed. I had crayons and paper, but was not compelled to use them that often. The Legos collected dust after I followed along with the schematics.

softsound 3y ago
As someone miserably bored a lot, I think the habit really is more important then forced boredom. Also having someone to work with will always likely make you more creative, I don't think being bored has ever really made me more creative but having freetime to burn has. If you are so bored you sleep through a lecture it's pointless, at least I could draw through a lot of the ones I was in.
- slothtrop 3y ago
  There's surely a balance. "Forced boredom" is just tantamount to excess unstructured time. Structure is good, but overscheduling your kids with predetermined activity can also exhaust them and maybe leave them resentful later as they don't get to decide what to do with their time. If every night is sports alternating with piano recital and then homework, their lives are on rails.