The power of play......

In my household, nothing will get you put to work faster than the words, "I'm bored."

"I'm bored" is always met with the same response...."Well, I have some things you can do."

Toby and Tera learned real quick that if they didn't want to be put to work then it would behoove them to never utter that horrible phrase.

For a while the words, "I'm bored" really bothered me.  How on God's green earth could you possibly be bored?

Kids today have video game consoles, internet, cable TV, ipads, ipods, on and on and on.  And, God forbid, you could actually do something like read a book....Or better yet, GO OUTSIDE!!!!


When I was a kid (here I go, sounding like my dad) I didn't have any of the previously mentioned technological things.  I had two options, read or go outside.  I couldn't plop down and watch TV all day as that privilege was restricted for Saturday morning cartoons and the occasional after school program. (I loved monster week when it played on channel five. Everyday after school I would literally run home to watch my beloved Godzilla movies)

I can still see my Mom pointing to the door and saying those words, "Get out......I'll call you when lunch in ready."  And, outside my brothers and I went.

Over the summer it was not unusual to be out of the house as soon as the sun came up.  The only time we went back inside was for lunch, supper, and when it was too dark to see your hand in front of your face.  Well, and the occasional bathroom break, but only if it called for the use of toilet paper.

One of our not so bright childhood ideas was to take a long piece of garden hose and feed it into a gallon milk jug.  Voila!!!!  An instant outdoor toilet; because you simply can't be bothered with something as time consuming as going inside the house.

We had our makeshift bathroom parked on the backside of the garage, underneath Dad's propped up aluminum v-bottom fishing boat.

Occasionally, on a hot summer day,  Dad would come out of the house, wrinkle his nose, and ask, "What in the Hell is that smell?"

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Then one of the neighborhood kids let the cat out of the bag when he tried to dump the contents of the milk jug out on his sister.....You talk about getting in trouble; we all caught hell over that incident.  It was a long time before Anthony came back to play.

And so, another brilliant creation dies at the hands of one not worthy of it's intended use.

When I first remembered the incident I just shook my head in disgust.....I was a real heathen as a child.  It's a wonder I didn't get the hell beat out of me more often.

But, on the other hand, the incident didn't prove to be a worthless endeavor.  The ill conceived outdoor bathroom came by way of creative thinking, by the use of imagination.  That's a good thing.

The horrible smell it produced on a hot day and the unintended assault on someone's little sister taught a valuable life lesson.....If you don't want your ass beat, think things through.  Also (many years later) a good thing.

Then, suddenly, through the power of urine, I realized why my kids were bored.......It's sounds almost funny, kinda sad to say, but they simply don't know how to play.

I realized that the bathroom I made was one of many creations brought on by playing outside.  That play is more than just running around the yard screaming and acting stupid.

Play is good for the imagination.  As kids, my brothers and I made bike ramps.  We also shoved styrofoam cups into the frames of our bicycles so that they sounded like motorcycles when the tire rubbed against the cup.

We caught bees using seven up bottles.

A baseball bat doubled as a gun when we played war games.  Rocks can be used as hand grenades, but I wouldn't advise it.

When ever we played a sport it was always in imitation of our heros who we watched play on TV.  During baseball games I was Willie Wilson; football either Roger Staubach or Tony Dorsett.  (If Dad ever reads this he will have a conniption.....He was a Steelers fan)

The great thing about the vivid imagination that play creates is that it comes in really handy in regards to trouble shooting.

Some of our brain storming ideas worked really well.  For instance, if we didn't have enough players for a baseball game we came up with all sorts of rules in regards to ghost runners, it's a double if the ball is hit here, you can't tackle the infielder as he is trying to catch a pop fly....so on and so forth.

Other ideas were not so good.  For instance, a garbage bag does not make for a good parachute.  All I can say is that I am very fortunate that the garage roof was not that high off the ground.

But, not deterred, my brother and I asked ourselves; what if you use two trash bags?....Nope, same result.....THUD.

Come to think of it, Tim never did jump.......That little prick probably knew all along that Mr. Hefty would not make us paratroopers.

I look outside my living room window and see a yard devoid of children; it really saddens me.  It's not just my kids who don't know how to play....It's all of them.

As a society, we have become obsessed with rules, regulations, and schedules.  Kids today don't get together and play football out in the yard like they did when I was a kid.  They go to football camps and practices as early as the second grade.  Everything is regimented and tightly controlled by an adult.

Growing up there were kids all over the place.  My Dad's yard looked horrible with all the bald spots the neighborhood kids would grind into it with our daily football games.

And there were no adults to resolve the issues that came about through rough play and hot heads.  As kids we had to solve our own problems; we had to learn the art of compromise.  Only when things got out of control did a parent step outside to break things up.

That right there is a big difference in parenting back then vs. today.  My parents would watch, but would not get in the way.  If for some reason they didn't intervene in time and one of us came home with a black eye, we came home with a black eye.  There was no calling other parents and fighting their kid's battle for them.  Mr. Black Eye would have another chance to get things right tomorrow.

Toby is thirteen now, and I feel like he's been cheated.  He didn't grow up with a neighborhood full of kids like I did.  He didn't have a "gang" to run around with. All of his play time activities have been well supervised.  Situations where he should have been given the chance to deal with on his own were instead tackled by the adult supervisor no more than a few feet away.  (In a lot of those cases I happened to be that adult supervisor)

Play has become too coordinated, too regulated, too thoughtless.  We need to get back to kicking our kids out of the house and make them use their imagination; to letting them develop their social skills and to solve their own problems.  The problem is, I can kick my kids out of the house.....but if there isn't anyone to play with....

Okay.....Now I understand.  Kids today aren't really given enough opportunities to think for themselves.  My kids are bored --- but I made them that way.

So, what do I do?  As stated earlier, it's kind of pointless to kick them out of the house if they are going to be the only ones outside.

Actually, I do know what I can do.  Then next time one of the kids wants to try to do something, for instance if Tera is wanting to paint her shelves, I will step away and let her have at it.  It may cause one hell of a mess, and the shelf may look horrible, but if Tera did it all on her own using her little brain and not listening to the rants of a hovering parent, then all is good.

Yes.....That's it....We may not be able to play...But we can still find ways to create a vivid imagination, to back away and let the kids learn their own life lessons.  (This is not going to be easy for me)

It's time to let these kids think for themselves, no matter how badly I want to step in.  When they can think for themselves I just know that I will never have to worry about hearing that stupid phrase:

"I'm bored."