Tuesday 30 March 2010

Bringing the Boredom Back

Mmm. It's the second day of the Easter holidays and the rain hasn't stopped. I'm not really surprised, though. Have you ever heard anyone say "When I was young the sun shone and we stayed out all day and didn't come home until bedtime?" It wasn't often like that  round our way. Sometimes it even snowed in April:


There was the famous Easter my sister managed to slip into her new pink shorts. But that was the year I was on an exchange trip to freezing France. With too few sweaters.

I think I've already told you about the wet Easter we spent roller skating up and down the hall. Maybe that was the same year we spent an afternoon lined up across a neighbours garage, brushing the rain water back out. We thought it was fun! Possibly the best fun we'd had all holiday.  Look, you can tell by the happy faces it was a good year.


Ah, that's entertainment. (And that's my brother and sister, who will try to tell you this photo was taken in July. But, believe me, round here there isn't much difference between April and July; so I'm going with it.)

The following year we got organised and set up a club for all the kids in the street. We crammed into my Mum's kitchen; drinking orange squash and doing - well, make-and-takes you'd call them now.

Which brings me back to today. My kids seem incredulous when I tell them how we made our own fun. We didn't need DVD's or Playstations. We would have laughed in the face of Twitter. (Maybe not. You're probably right.) I think I'm going to make them try this holiday, though. Yes! I'm Bringing Boredom Back! Turning off the television. Confiscating the computer. Bringing out the colouring pencils. We'll see how it goes.

19 comments:

Cheri said...

good luck!

Ruth said...

Good luck with that! My DS is currently having a paddy because he can't continue to play in the garden now that it is raining!

Deb @ PaperTurtle said...

Good luck pulling your kids away from their electronic devices! :o) I hope you are successful though because I think it would be great family time and something they'll remember for years to come (hopefully in a good way!).

Your Easter holiday history was fun to read! :o)

scrappyjacky said...

Good luck with that,Sian!!! Will you still be alive at the end of the Easter break??????

Alana said...

So you don't want to win 'Mum of the year award' this year then? Ooohh you must have a will of iron. Well good luck and have.... er...fun!!!!!

Maria Ontiveros said...

I remember when we were little and we had bikes and friends and went outside. Plus lots of different balls - basketball, baseball, football (sadly, no soccer ball). We played hide-and-seek and kick-the-can and over-the-line. But I was in sunny California.
Thanks for a fabulous post that brought back those memories.
Rinda

Lizzie said...

Well, I never said "I'm Bored" when I was a kid, so I suppose we must have had enough to keep us amused, even on rainy days. I remember painting, modelling with clay or plasticine, making an Airfix plane (and painting it bright red!!), sewing clothes for my sister's dolls, reading, reading and reading, writing stories and making a magazine... and of course, if it stopped raining, we went to the park and made lots of noise!

Scrappi Sandi said...

He He He!! Let's see who gives out first shall we?!!!!! But I applaud your good intentions...I just know how that would go down in our household!!!...like a pair of prverbial lead knickers!!

debs14 said...

WHAT???? You're on Easter hols NOW? We don't break up until Thursday here :-(
And I have to say, we had snow at Easter a couple of years ago. We have photos of my daughter home from uni making 'snow angels' in the back garden!
And yes we did spend a heck of a lot more time in the 'fresh air' back in the day, whether that fresh air was cold, wet or warm. Good luck with your good intentions, if Horsey leaves home for a couple of weeks, we will know the atmosphere is tense!

Sandra said...

Good luck ... go for it - although i wonder who'll give in first, you for some peace and quite or them LOL.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for a trip down memory lane. I grew up in a small Ohio village. We left the house in the morning, showed up for lunch and then dinner. The rest of the time we were outside playing and riding bikes around town. It was a totally safe environment. We didn't even have TV until I was in junior high school.

Tinkertaylor said...

This is an admirable gesture to recreate your childhood holidays and I wish you ALL success. Do you think you will be able to photograph your activities so that you can compare. I just can't wait to see you all sat around the kitchen table crafting. I'm really envious mine are far to old now to join in "family activities" unless it involves eating or drinking down the pub! Good luck

Amanda said...

Most of our holidays when I was little were spent at the beach - rain or shine. It's amazing how many people plus a dog you can fit into a beach hut :)

Ann said...

In the words of your children ten years from now - 'Do you remember that Easter? The one when you wouldn't let us watch TV or use the computer? You really thought we'd play with paints and crayons for two weeks. We soon had you giving in and letting us do what we wanted, didn't we?! Ha. Ha.'

Anonymous said...

Brilliant idea, and look forward to hearing how it goes. Mind you, if the forecast is correct, you could be seeing snow again this Easter. Yep, I remember the good old days of being out with my friends, making up playlets to perform in the garage, and iced buns to sell to the neighbours ... Happy days. Sigh! alexa

Kirsty.A said...

You're a better mum than I, Gunga Din!
The trouble is, if I have to keep organising the kids' play I get bored. We are going to France where we have no TV or Internet, but I'm not brave enough to ban DVDs and DSs as well!

Denise said...

Good luck - Hope there's nothing on TV you want to watch !! have fun :-)

Anna said...

When I was a child, we used to get sent out to play with one pair of roller skates between us and told not to come back in again till lunch time ... I don't know if you've ever tried 3 legged roller skating? It's entertaining enough but the novelty wears thin after the first two hours!

Have a lovely Easter :)

humel said...

lol! How did it go? My 2 have strictly rationed 'screen time' so have to entertain themselves a fair bit - they've used about a ream of paper drawing pictures of Pokemon the last couple of days. Then there's the role-play - where they pretend to be Pokemon. Or they make up stories. About Pokemon. Or read - Pokemon books. Or hey, lego! Building Pokemon homes.... I may as well give in and let them play the Pokemon games on the DS!!

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