Joanne Kraft loves to encourage moms. Her nonfiction book, Just Too Busy – Taking Your Family on a Radical Sabbatical is the true story of her family’s twelve month time-out and the lessons learned along the way. Joanne has been published in Today’s Christian Woman, In Touch, ParentLife, Kyria, Thriving Family, and P31 Woman Magazine. Visit her at her blog www.JoanneKraft.com
“I’m bored!” Two words that can cause the most even-tempered parent to lose their cool.
My husband usually responds this way, “You’re bored because you’re boring!”
He’s such a cool drink on a hot summer’s day.
The truth is, with children being plugged in, turned on and tuned out, coming up with things to do that strike their fancy can often times be a struggle.
Image by Skip Brown
- Have a picnic lunch in the backyard. Slow-paced summer days don’t have to be boring. Slap together a PB&J and throw out a blanket and whalla! Lay out on the grass and practice a few minutes of cloud gazing together.
- Read a book. Turn off the TV. Put down the iPod. Back away from the XBOX. Slip a hardbound book in your child’s hands and encourage them to read a chapter aloud to YOU.
- Take a walk. We live in a neighborhood filled with children, yet, if you were to walk around our block you’d never know it. Kids are inside being entertained by electronic devices all day long. Get some Vitamin D and bring your children out into the light for a fifteen minute stroll.
- Write a letter to an elderly relative. Letter-writing is a lost art. Email has become the bully on the block, but nothing will bring more joy to your grandma, great-aunt Melba, or cousin Jimmy, than a handwritten letter from your child.
- Hand your child a broom. Nothing cures the summer blues faster than chores around the house. I am always amazed at how fast their creative juices begin to flow when we give them something to do that includes PineSol, Windex, and some good ol’ elbow grease!
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I love number two, we read together as often as we can (just this morning) and I don’t know if I would call her elderly, but I have my daughter write cards and letters to my mom as often as once a month. I keep a bunch of cards in a box with stamps, markers, and an address book and just let her go to work!
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