“I’m so booooored”, Why Boredom Can Be A Good Thing For Your Child

After the Ministry of Health (MOH) released its latest guidelines on screen use in January 2025, parents across Singapore have felt many different feelings; vindication, satisfaction or guilt or pressure, to name a few. This push to discourage screen use has encouraged many to substitute screen time for other forms of entertainment.

If you’re reading this article, chances are you’re looking for ways to further keep your children engaged – without relying on screens. However, we’d like to suggest a different approach:

How about letting your child experience boredom?

Yes, you read right. Allowing your children to feel bored might just be beneficial for them.

Why? Is that really good for my child?

Boredom can sometimes seem intimidating to parents because children crave stimulation. If they are used to being fully engaged almost all of the time, they are going to be looking for that level of engagement again. And how does one compete with videos or games carefully engineered to engage a child’s senses and leave them wanting more?

Children are natural-born explorers of the world and absorb information from everything they see and experience. When we allow children to be bored, we give them the space to explore the world around them in real life, instead of just in the digital realm.

Children entertaining themselves by creating a game with lines on the floor

A white paper released by SUSS, Samantha Tan and IPC children’s charity Playeum (2024) challenges us to be brave enough to allow our children to simply play; to play on their own and to initiate play. If children are not given any space to be bored or think about what they want to do, how can they come up with their own games, their own means to entertain themselves? Like the age-old proverb reminds us: Boredom is the mother of invention.

Do your children have time for creative thought, play and expression?

What does this mean for my daily life?

Allowing your child to be bored might mean a shift in how you respond to their requests for something to do or “I’m bored…”. When our children say they are bored, we can try resisting the urge to react with a solution straight away. If we keep doing that, they learn that they can get solutions quickly without needing to think for themselves.

Reframing how we respond to boredom might also mean you have to tahan them constantly asking you about what they can do or bugging you to play with them. We are not saying “don’t play with your kids”, we are saying that there is room for them to entertain themselves sometimes. Over time, they’ll learn to create their own fun!

Here are 2 ways we can get started (adapted from Child Mind Institute):

1. Respond to Boredom Differently

View boredom as an opportunity to do something and help our children change their perspective too! If they have to think about what to do in their free time, they get the chance to try new things and practice their problem solving and planning skills. After a while, when your child says they are bored, you can respond saying:

“Great, I can’t wait to see what you’ll do!”

2. Tackling Boredom Proactively

Instead of reacting every time your children say they are bored and coming up with something for them, we can consider managing this proactively (acting in anticipation) by getting them to do the thinking. To help them get started, you can start by asking them open-ended questions like:

• What would you like to do?
• What is something fun you haven’t tried in a while?
• How do you think you can solve this?

As adults, we can get the ball rolling on what they can do when they are bored and invite the children to think for themselves. These questions show them the process of solving their own boredom, and it encourages them to express and explore their interests and then do it on their own.

Remember to consider their age as well when discussing what activities to do. Below are some activity ideas that you can use as prompters to guide your discussion (and not provide them right away!).

It doesn’t always have to be on you to entertain them. You can allow them to have these moments when they are bored, and you just prompt them to think what they would like to do to manage that. You are giving them the chance to take charge of their time and start making their own decisions.

After all is said and done, we acknowledge that taking on this new perspective is not easy. Ultimately, you are your child’s protector, educator and playmate, and you know them best! Trust your instincts and also challenge them as you learn more about children and how their brains develop. It’s never too late to create a healthier lifestyle for your child.

References

Miller, G. (2024). The benefits of boredom. https://childmind.org/article/the-benefits-of-boredom/

Sirene Lim, Samantha Tan, G. Kaveri, Cynthia Lim with Playeum (2024). Are we brave enough to let our children play? Raising Singaporean kids for a better tomorrow. Singapore University of Social Sciences.

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This article is written by Circle of Care Consultancy Services (CoCCS), a consultancy service in Care Corner Singapore. Through our parenting workshops, we work with partners to strengthen parent-child relationships and empower parents with the confidence and tools necessary to support their children through their critical transitions in school and beyond!

We offer workshops relating to:

• Promoting executive-function based life skills
• Primary school transition support
• Supporting children’s social-emotional learning

Reach out to us at: 6835 0921 or coc.consultancy@carecorner.org.sg