Mum! I'm BORED! {1 Word Challenge}

How many times a day have you heard those three little words? 

Miss B would say this to me all the time and it drove me batty! When I was younger, I would play with my dolls, write letters, change my room around and have a room reveal (I did this A LOT!) and/or go outside and play with my four brothers (yes, I have four brothers). We didn't have all the gizmos kids have today, we would only play the Nintendo or Sega on rainy days, and we spent most of our days outside and usually didn't go inside until dinner was ready (well, that's what my parents told us to do if and when we said "Mum/Dad, I'm Bored!" and it worked - we always found SOMETHING to do!)

It's amazing at how different this new generation is, compared to how we grew up. Are we, as parents, to blame for this? Can we blame society or media influences? Maybe they are bored of the new-age toys/gizmos, OR maybe, just maybe, they want to be kids and live a life that we once did - like playing Hide 'n Seek, climbing trees, playing elastics or marbles and backyard cricket...

Let's give our children experiences that we had from when we were growing up - it was fun for us back then, why can't it be fun now! Let's kick those "Mum! I'm Bored" words to the curb!

Last year I introduced Miss B to the School Holiday Ideas Jar, she absolutely loved it, we had something to do every day for two weeks. When it ended, she asked me "What if I get bored Mum?"...so together we created a "I'm Bored Jar"! If Miss B was bored, she would go and pick out an activity for her to do independently, with me or a friend, or even as a family.



I'm Bored Jar Activities include...

  • Nature walk
  • Face painting
  • Feed the birds
  • Tell me a story 
  • Grab the hose and have a splash
  • Make some play dough
  • Make necklaces
  • play board games or cards
  • Do the dishes/vacuuming/clean the windows
  • Hide & Seek
  • Write a letter
  • Make a craft 
  • Rainbow Loom
  • Sit under a tree and read
  • Lie on the grass and watch the clouds
  • Drawing/Colouring in
plus many more.

On other days, if she said "Mum, I'm Bored!", I would direct her to the I'm Bored poster (I saw this idea on Pinterest) and ask her...Have you Been creative? played Outside? Read a book? Exercised for 10 minutes? or Done something helpful? 

Asking those questions were enough to send her off to fill the boredom! 

So the next time your kids says "Mum, I'm Bored!" -  think about the options that I have mentioned above! Create a "I'm Bored Jar" or a poster OR go and do something that YOU used to do when you were younger! Share that experience with your kids! And most of all HAVE FUN!

This post is part of the 1 WORD Challenge hosted by Lisa at The Golden Spoons. 
The words this week were: MESS, PROMISE and BORED! 


8 comments

  1. Great ideas! I use to do the jar, but I have never seen hat poster! Love it!

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  2. Thanks Lisa! I did read in one of your comments on another #1word blog that you have used the jar before! The poster is great! I just need to point to it before Miss B mutters the words "Mum, I'm bored" and she's off getting her craft stuff.

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  3. I love the Bored Jar and Poster! I've never seen either, but think both methods would work great to cure boredom when it strikes. Thanks so much for sharing these ideas. I'll definitely be passing them along. :)

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  4. Thank you for your kind words Marcia! I love sharing ideas with others - Motivating other, motivates me! :) I was super excited to find that my post has been featured on The Nature Daily. http://paper.li/GoodBlogPosts1/1309660483#!leisure.

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  5. I love that poster! My kids don't actually use the word "bored" very often, because they know I'm likely to assign chores if they do! LOL!

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    1. Thank you! Haha! Yes Rabia! It's amazing how quickly they change their mind when you mention the word 'chore' or 'job'!

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  6. I made one of these for Kidspot a while back and... I hate to tell you this... really... but it's become the bane of my life. The kids seem to have lost all ability to think for themselves and instead claim "i'm bored, can I please go to the bored jar?" at about 6.35 am every morning. In an effort to cure their lazy ways, I've added 50/50 negative chore-type things into the mix. So, this week when they go to the jar, they might pull out an exciting activity like 'dance until your drop' OR they may pull out "sweep all the floors in the living areas"... can't wait to see how it goes down... x

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    1. haha Brilliant Bron! I too have included a few jobs in the jar for Miss B. Although I have seen lately that if she is bored, she will actually clean her room, or organise her nail polish/lego/loom bands...long may it last! Two more weeks until "Back to School" - hang in there!

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