When I was a kid, we practiced social distancing regularly. We called it boredom.
We lived outside of town and my mom stayed at home, so we were regularly our own entertainment. We didn’t have computers until that thing that could only play pong and as far as I knew, our TV only had Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, and The Electric Company. By the time the show Zoom came along, I thought that was really high tech.
When the inevitable cry of “Mom, I’m bored!” rang out, she was always ready. These are some of my absolute favorites from growing up socially distanced but never bored.
- Paint the swingset. I know. It sounds ridiculous. And perhaps a bit embarassing to my two youngest siblings, who faithfully performed this task again and again. My mom would give them a bucket of water and two paintbrushes and tell them to go paint the swingset. The paint on the swingset was faded, and so when they brushed the water on, it turned a bit darker, so I’m not sure how long it took them to realize they weren’t really painting.
- Play some music. Okay, I know this might not sound like a big deal, but we created our own version of a karaoke dance party right in our own family room, well before that was a thing. We had a go-to list of favorites including this amazing song right here. Trust me, if you can learn all of the words to “The Epic of Peanut Butter and Jelly,” you will absolutely never be bored again. We still know them today (and I rock out with my own version of the guitar solo!).
- Create commercials. All you need is a bathroom mirror and a bit of imagination and this is extremely entertaining. My sister Christine is actually the master at this – her toothpaste commercials would rival any major advertising agency.
- Play in the camper. This only worked at my grandmother’s house (she lived, quite literally, in the middle of a cow field so the options were pretty limited), but this was the absolute best thing ever. We played “Ice Cream Store” in the camper for hours. The camper had two doors and each door had a part that slid open. We would take turns placing orders and pretending to scoop and serve ice cream. My grandmother and grandfather must have pretended to eat thousands of ice cream cones – commenting on how delicious they were and savoring each and every bite. If you don’t have a camper, think about how your kids could turn the kitchen island into a hot dog stand or the spare room into a laboratory (speaking of laboratory, my friend and I did get into a bit of trouble using my mom’s bedroom as a laboratory to make our own perfume factory, but that is a story for another day).
Today’s kids have technology to add into any kind of creative play. Many kids today have grown up as consumers of creativity or thinking that creativity has to be monetized in order for it to be cool. There is something to be said for just being silly and singing a song about washing your hands. It doesn’t have to be shared with the whole world or go viral in order for it to be memorable.
What are you doing to be creative during your boredom? Share in the comments below!