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Draper Journal

Mom… I’m Bored…. The Cheapest and Easiest Way to Entertain the Kids this Summer

May 05, 2016 12:16PM ● By Bryan Scott
By Joani Taylor
Can you believe it? Summer is almost here, that time of year where kids take a break from their structured routine and turn to the adults in their lives for entertainment ideas. What will you do to help your kids enjoy their time off? One only need to turn to Pinterest and Youtube to find dozens of Millennial Mama experts sharing all kinds of amazing ideas for summer fun. Turn an old rain gutter into a river, paint with flyswatters or, there’s always the old standby of making rainbow unicorn poop slime, (Google it) that’s not to be confused with rainbow unicorn puke slime. You’ll want to save that for another day. 

Parenting has become very precious to the digital generation. The pressure to have the perfect house, perfect marriage and perfect children seems to be stronger than ever. Leaving them feeling that in order to be a “good parent” they must create an utterly magical fairytale, and delightful childhood experience for their kids, right down to the bug bite sandwiches and peanut butter snails. 

Holy Crap! I get shaky hands, a sick panicky feeling and a stress rash just thinking about it. Staring at twelve long and unobstructed weeks trying to figure out how to keep the kids entertained so they won’t sleep too late, lose brain cells and ruin their vision playing computer games, or utter those dreaded words “Mom, I’m bored”. How can a parent these days possibly balance it all? 

Parents out there, I’m about to share with you a secret trick, a plan of attack that moms for generations have been using for decades. A place so magical your kids will never forget it and will look back on it fondly for a lifetime. It’s a place where your kids will learn to build, socialize, exercise and dream all without your help. It’s cheap, easy to get to and will provide hours of entertainment. Are you ready for it? It’s called outside. 

Prior to the digital drama of today it never occurred to our moms to entertain kids non-stop, fund expensive summer activities or endeavor to create stimulating and crafty projects for brain development. Our mom’s simply said “get your butts outside” and we did. We built forts from broken branches, made city roads in the dirt for our matchbox cars, choreographed dance routines, made up songs and rode our bikes. It’s these very activities that allowed our minds to develop coping skills, learn for ourselves to be creatvie and dream the seemingly impossible. What better gift and life skills can you give a child than the ability to imagine, dream and build for them selves?

This summer save yourself the fret and stress of building a bowling ally with coconuts or a carwash with PVC pipe and give them a pool noodle and pack of plastic cups from the dollar store and the gift of figuring out what do with them on their own. If we don’t remove easy entertainment from our children’s lives they will never learn the skills to create and invent on their own.