Nothing to Do

The next time I hear someone complain about the fact that the kids have nothing to do, I am going to scream.  You are going to hear it all over because it is going to be the longest and loudest scream you have ever heard.  Well maybe not really, but I will feel like it.

I want you to think back to your childhood if you are over the age of 45.  Did you have every hour of your day organized into specific activities, or did your parents allow you the freedom of running through the neighborhood making up stories with your friends and playing?  Did your parents take you to all the places they wanted you to go such as dance lessons, or horseback riding lessons, or whatever?  Did you parents take you to the park on a lazy summer weekend afternoon to laugh and play in the playground?  Didn’t you have fun just being a kid and not having to be somewhere doing something you didn’t want to do?

I think there are plenty of things to do for kids to do if parents are willing to look for them.  You can always sit down and read them a story, or play make-believe with them.  You can always take them to the library on a Saturday morning and let them join in on the activities they have there.  You can take them to the local zoo which for Norristown residents is lowered fee for many days out of the year.  You can take the kids to a museum, which are often open during the weekend.  Or you can just let them play in the back yard making up stories in their little imaginative brains where they can pretend to their heart’s content.  Kids have the power to be engaged by themselves and frankly it’s the parents who don’t have the time to be with them that complain the loudest.