Boredom

I feel I have accomplished something great this holiday when my daughter is bored.  

I am sure you are familiar with the, "I'm bored.  I have nothing to do."  In our house, it has shown up as an insistence on play dates.  She has her play date arranged-which friend is coming over, what toys both of them will play with, what scenes they will act out with their ponies.  That's all before she asks us to have a friend over, or we have a play date arranged.  

Instead, and partly due to the fact that she's temporarily sick, and the basement was torn up for re-arranging, and the Christmas decorations were in the middle ground between packed and unpacked, she's been forced to play with us, or with Raven, or by herself, or out in the yard.  Not to count the attention she received from Grandparents and family all last week up to Boxing Day.  We have still taken her to a few activities-play places, parks, the zoo, but really I've been wanting that nothing time.  Yes, the TV has been on a few times, but definitely less than usual.  We've read, painted, played with the new and old toys, cleaned, gone for walks...

Why do I like this state of boredom?  I believe we need that to clean the slate-to recharge, to allow room for creativity, to think.  To dream as the crone (yes, year of the Goddess and all).  It gives us that chance for introspection that I think we are missing day-to-day with all of our over scheduling.  A tiny part of me questions if our extroverted daughter needs that as much as I do, but I still think she does.  She will have busy days ahead-laughable when I think that our 4 year old has a scheduled life.  

We still had the loose boundaries of a schedule around our house over the holidays, although probably less schedule than I would have liked.  I would start her days with her outside everyday but just haven't managed to do that.  Regardless of how the rest of the day goes, I do enjoy the feeling of success when she voices her boredom in her social girl way.