well with grown children; that is, MY grown children. Is it that I'm too interested, too biased, too concerned? Hard to see or hear things from them and be neutral. Male child is on long bike trip that had first day rained out; his blog says he's really bored sitting around the hotel. Yeah, that would be a bummer. But what came to my mind was this quote from Mad Men: "Only boring people get bored."
Evidently, you say that to a child who can't seem to occupy themselves sufficiently. Not sure I subscribe to that particular child-rearing ploy; but then I play word games with mags, papers, books and a private form of "I spy" if I'm captive in a foreign place. AND, clearly, I'm easily entertained. But doctor's appointments, people arriving late to meetings and having the cable go out help hone those abilities.
Pretty sure I'm not going to get clues to a happy life from the dysfunctional, maladjusted (but passing every bit for happy, successful and nice) people from that show, even though I think the show is really good. So I will disregard the callous advice for entertaining yourself and not pass it on to my son.
It should be noted here that girl child often has the problem of being bored; so wonder what I should have shown them that I left out of the catechism of information for living? I'm thinking my mother kept me occupied more than I recall; she was an at-home mom and had time and ideas to share. Besides, Mom cooked, sewed, upholstered, repaired and in so many ways kept things moving along. There was usually something happening I could watch or help with even though I didn't develop many of those skills.
I was rarely an at-home mom and my kids must have entertained themselves a great deal. Ah, and their ideas for entertainment might have aged me much sooner than I wished; maybe it's better if I don't know.
I know that both of my offspring seem to always have a book with them; I suppose that time passing very slowly could require more than a book. And I've had that experience myself--when I have time left to use but want to do something different. Why does it seem I'm wasting time if I'm just doing nothing? Someone said, "the time you enjoy wasting is not wasted." I want that to be true and there have been moments I've believed it; yet there's someone in my head telling me to get busy and do something worthwhile.
Maybe it's the fear we'll run out of time; as the bard said, ". . . I wasted time, and now doth time waste me." Gee, sounds like you can't make up for lost time, and that's a pity.
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