As I feel the summer season drawing near, like ducks getting ready to depart for winter, all my parent colleagues start to gather the consensus of what they’ll do with their children this summer. Everyone is eagerly taking mental stock of ideas for summer camp. This is the topic of all banter these days. It’s: “Hi…good to see you…yadda yadda…let’s cut to the chase, what camp is your child doing this summer?”

There are a plethora of camp options these days.  Endless and diverse ways to enrich one’s child. Science camp? Art camp? Math-letes camp? Dance camp? Ninja camp. Rich kid camps and poor kid’s camps with sad camp counselors with nothing more than mere a pulse to supervise your children. It seems like there’s a camp to enrich every child’s category of interest. There are camps to keep your child’s brain lit up denying any morsels of academic information to escape. No room to meander, the summer days are filled with so much enrichment it’s coming out your child’s ears. Swimmer’s Ear to be exact.

This summer, when thinking of what enrichment faction to immerse your child in. Consider the beautiful gift of boredom. Boredom camp or enrichment deprivation camp. I’m talking lazy days of PJ’s till noon, hours of TV, and… watching… the clouds …go by. This is a wonderful place. A place where the day begins with splotches of pancake batter on the counter, hula hoops in the family room, grape sodas in the afternoon, and “forgetting” to brush teeth before bed. Where pool time is synonymous with bath time. Where finding an ominous looking spider is “the drama” of summer. Boredom camp at home could possibly be the most wonderful staycation your child has ever experienced.

Whenever I talk to some of the children I used to nanny (who are now grown up), they don’t talk about the fun weekends or holidays spent together. They don’t relish on the beautiful getaway vacations and memories they made, the funny stories or the adventures. They talk about those long summer days spent at home. My sentimental heart always warms at hearing: “Remember that time we…”. A simple memory. That’s all it was. But to that child, it’s that simple memory cherished over the years that’s made it’s way into the hall of fame of nostalgia. A simple memory where the highlight of the day was two scoops chocolate malted crunch and brain freeze. Days spent swimming till exhaustion, riding bikes to the park, telling ghost stories via homemade fortress at 1:00 in the afternoon, and playing pretend anything. We can’t come downstairs for dinner, there are man-eating tigers about! The day was an abyss of endless possibilities filled with freedom and accents of sunscreen. Freedom was the ticket to ingenuity. These were the days we invented for ourselves; surmounted by an open road with no paved lanes as time traveled slowly by. Gone were the days of militant lining up, dreary lectures, and piles of homework. Summer is the divine kingdom of childhood where kids rule and parents befit as loyal subjects. The days long and the weeks fast.

Although I have to admit, by the end of summer, I can’t stand the smell of Coppertone and Citronella. By end of summer, I have lost all my water bottle caps and bikini bottoms. I’m tired of blowing up pool toys because I’m too lazy to walk back to the garage to get the air pump. I’m over washing three loads of towels per day and sprinting over hot cement to catch a panicked child running from a bee. I’m tapped out from three hours spent packing up my entire house and loading it into the car, bringing it to Zuma beach only to spend 2 hours there and spending another two hours cleaning out and putting everything away.  It’s irksome when you drop your sandwich in the sand and you can’t do the five-second rule. It’s a lot of effort. But these are the champagne problems of summer. My kids have no idea either. For all they know, Malibu concierge delivers a fully stocked igloo cooler with their favorite drinks, lunch, and treats. There’s umbrella and or tent for shade accompanied by monogrammed towels with their initials threaded in. The concierge even managed a special thermos for Mom.  Mama’s juice that the kiddies don’t touch. My oldest child wrinkles up her nose and tells me I’m drinking hand sanitizer and carefully hands it back to me.

In all seriousness, my case for boredom is not just a nonsensical rant. Allowing your child to disconnect from the informational, technology saturated, the agendadized world around them is healthy. I’m not knocking structure. Routine and discipline is good for children. But taking a break from all the hustle and bustle from their jammed packed itineraries and busy agendas and returning to the delights of simplicity is good for them too. Boredom is an opportunity for a child to tap into his/her own creative devices. A time to wake up the right hemisphere of the brain. More and more, we are converting into the informative based world and discounting creativity and intuitive insight. Many are not aware, but boredom can help build executive skills. It pushes the prefrontal cortex to wake up and take initiative, to plan, to organize within the realm of unexplored monotony. It gives the child the opportunity to come up with ideas for himself rather than be told. Children who are often over stimulated have a very difficult time when they become bored. These are the children who get into mischief the most when left to their own devices. Imagine a child who always has something to do and somewhere to go. Every day he is told what he will play and where he will go. Activities and play centers will be set up in order to ensure that every crevice of his attention is occupied. Not a moment to wander. Not a wild thought to ponder. How sad is that?

How did we get to be so afraid of boredom? Remember the saying from Proverbs: “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop”. Was that a scare tactic telling us that if our children are left to their own tedium they’ll turn to crystal meth and violence for recreation? Shit…is my child going to murder me in my sleep if I don’t enroll her at the YMCA?

Another reason the fear of boredom endures is not entirely based on concerns for our child’s enrichment deprivation but from protecting them from those who mean to harm. The distance radius a child independently ventures from home has greatly diminished over the years due to increasing fears for safety. We are now more aware of the dangers and behaviors of child predators, congested streets, and distracted drivers. That said, camp is a well-secured place where children are protected and provided with recreational opportunities in a safe haven to play. I get it. Moreover, I especially appreciate the stance of the hard working parent(s) who work full time necessitating their child be enrolled in camp. Much respect.

This summer, consider giving boredom a chance. If you are a working parent and can’t stay home with your child, consider hiring a babysitter. Many high schoolers and college kids are home for the summer and are very eager to have jobs! Or…consider camp two days per week if you have to…have the babysitter the other three days. Days should be kept simple. If your kids crave somewhat of a set schedule, encourage them to take charge and plan out theme days together: Beach days, nature explorer days, picnic days, baking and cooking days, science experiment days, dance party days, making carpet angel days…etc. The possibilities are endless.

All said and done, no one knows your child like you do. If your child is the ideal camp kid and thrives happily in an activity structured day with lots of children to socialize with then go for it. You know your child best. But don’t fear boredom! Don’t send them off to camp for fear of boredom. Thou shalt not fear a tedious nature. And when you hear the lovely ennui in your child’s inquisitive voice: “What are we going to do today Mommy…I’m bored?” Smile to yourself and know you’ve successfully deprived them of enrichment. Well Done!