Nobody is immune to a kid like this. It's our job to see that they do not stay this way. And a saying that is really so important is: IT TAKES A COMMUNITY TO RAISE A CHILD. We had this on one of those large tote bags one year. We got it from a school sale I think.
It's the end of summer and guess what? They are bored! Or perhaps they have been bored for other parts of the summer. They just can't seem to escape it.
This is when you know that they have been on vacation for too long and you are counting down the days until their boredom has been cured with the start of a new school year. Nothing to be bored about that. At least in the beginning.
You know for sure at one point they are going to be pretending to sleep at their desk, go into a daze and start doodling on the covers of their notebooks and wish that they were anywhere but in school. You know because you were there once experiencing the same thing. I know I was. I remember countless times where I would be doodling my married name of the current boy I liked. Like that was ever going to happen.
Okay, so how can you tell when you have a bored child on your hands?
1. They are going to have that really bored look on their face that tells you that they are burnt out with nothing to do. You know for a fact that there is so many things that they can be doing. They just can't fathom the thought of finding something to do as they have just plain decided that they are B-O-R-E-D.
2. They whine all day and that is when you know that they need to be tended to and amused. Which means you have to stop everything you are doing to keep them happy. Unless you just have to get your dishes, laundry or cooking done as they have piled up and people are going to get hungry. They have to know that Mom has housework to do and they need to be patient and wait.
3. They come in and start tugging on your outfits and start clinging to you. They have grown tired of what they are doing and need you. Because they love you and want to be near you.
4. They start to do a whole bunch of things to annoy you and pester you. Because they have grown tired of what they were doing and want to get your attention and a reaction from you.
5. They start to fight with their siblings, so your primary instinct is that they are Bored and have nothing better to do than to argue and scream at each other.
6. They've done everything that they wanted this summer and they have run out of things on their bucket list to do.
7. They've watched way too much TV and are zoned out and Bored out of their little minds.
Well, those are the basics of why they get bored.
The not so good reason for a child being bored would be that they could be neglected.
Today, I could tell that Mollyanne was starting to get bored today. She started to reach for my big Ziploc bag of yo yo circles that were done and she started to empty them out and toss them all over the living room. And then she started to pick up little pieces of junk and fuzzies off the living room carpet and put them on my knee.
But then as I saw her playing with the yo yo circles it brought back fun memories of when Sean and Jake were younger and Mollyanne was little and Julia was probably a year old. I had this big sewn up bag that was filled with octagon quilt pieces 1" size roughly or a little bigger. It started to make a nice flower quilt that I never finished. I still have it.
Well, one day I let Sean and Jake and Mollyanne go through the bag and start pulling out the pieces and of course they got scattered across the whole living room. Believe me, there was a lot of them. And guess who ended up picking them up? Mom. That always took a while so they didn't get to do it all the time. I've got pictures of all of them in the middle of it all.
Well, today Mollyanne was lying down in the middle of the yo yo circles and they were all near her face so I started taking pictures. Then she decided to put them back in the bag and put the bag on top of her head so it looked like a funny hat with all the yo yo's inside.
She couldn't remember the previous memory, but Sean kind of remembered.
As she kept dumping them out and picking them up, I suggested that she count how many were in there so she could practice her math skills. She's supposed to be doing that during the summer as both girls go to school for a week every summer for extra help with reading and math.
And then she started getting silly and kissing them and telling them to go to sleep and "Don't let the bed bugs bite."
And the funny thing as I was taking pictures of Mollyanne who still likes her picture taken, I quietly started aiming the camera at Julia who was engrossed with my laptop. I took three and as I was taking them I could see that she was picking her nose. Ha ha. And then after the third picture, Mollyanne could see I was taking pictures of Julia and said something. And then it was just funny and we had a good laugh at Julia's expense. I'm sure I will be deleting the one or two where she was picking her nose, but it was so funny that I caught her privately doing that.
Back to the octagon circles I had cut out years ago, on some days I would pull them out just to look at them with my girls and we would try to just lay them out and make temporary patterns with them. You know like those wooden pattern blocks. We have a set of them. The kids used to love to play with those. I should find them and save them for my grandkids someday.
You would be surprised at what little things can amuse kids. Mollyanne spend about fifteen to twenty minutes with those yo yo's and it seemed to hold her interest.
Until the next day she or one of my other's gets bored. Then what do you do? Think Fast.
Jennifer Jo Fay
Copyrighted August 18, 2012