Boredom Isn't Bad

Boredom Isn't Bad: Dealing with the "Off-Week" Between the Holidays

"Mom, I'm bored."

If you have daughters home during that strange liminal week between Christmas and New Year's, you've probably heard this refrain more than once. The presents have been opened, the excitement has faded, and suddenly your girls are wandering around the house like lost puppies, phones in hand, sighing dramatically.

Your first instinct might be to fix it—to plan an activity, suggest a project, or hand them a screen to fill the void. But what if we resisted that urge? What if, instead of treating boredom like a problem to solve, we recognized it as something valuable?

The Lost Art of Being Bored

Our daughters live in a world engineered to eliminate every moment of emptiness. There's always another notification, another video, another dopamine hit just a swipe away. Boredom has become almost obsolete—and with it, we've lost something important.

Boredom is where creativity begins. It's in those restless, uncomfortable moments of nothingness that our brains start to wander, imagine, and invent. Some of the most memorable childhood moments happen precisely because there was nothing else to do: building elaborate forts, creating intricate imaginary worlds, teaching yourself to juggle, writing terrible poetry, or finally reading that book that's been sitting on the shelf.

When we constantly rescue our daughters from boredom, we rob them of the opportunity to discover what they're genuinely interested in when no one is telling them what to do.

The "Off-Week" as an Opportunity

That awkward week between Christmas and New Year's is perfect for practicing boredom. School's out, the structure is gone, and the calendar is blissfully empty. Instead of filling every hour, what if we embraced this time as a reset?

This doesn't mean abandoning our daughters to their own devices entirely. It means creating the conditions for boredom to do its work. Stock the house with open-ended materials: art supplies, building blocks, puzzles, books, ingredients for baking. Then step back. Don't suggest. Don't direct. Just let them be.

Yes, they'll complain. They'll drag their feet. They might stare at the ceiling for an uncomfortably long time. But if you can resist the urge to entertain them, something magical often happens. They start creating.

What to Say When "I'm Bored" Strikes

When your daughter comes to you with that familiar complaint, try responding with curiosity rather than solutions:

"That sounds uncomfortable. What do you think you might do about it?"

"Sometimes being bored leads to the best ideas. I wonder what will come to you."

"I remember being bored at your age. I ended up sharing a genuine memory. What do you think you might discover?"

These responses validate the feeling without fixing it. They communicate that boredom is normal, temporary, and potentially productive, not an emergency requiring immediate adult intervention.

Teaching Them to Sit with Discomfort

Learning to tolerate boredom is actually learning to sit with discomfort without immediately seeking escape. This is a crucial life skill. In a world of instant gratification, the ability to be present with restlessness, to let thoughts marinate, to wait for genuine inspiration rather than constant stimulation, these are superpowers.

Our daughters will face many moments in life when they'll need to persist through discomfort: studying for difficult exams, working through relationship conflicts, pursuing long-term goals. The off-week boredom is practice for all of that.

Finding the Balance

This doesn't mean the entire week should be a boredom bootcamp. It's still the holidays, after all. Family movie nights, game days, and special outings absolutely have their place. But maybe we don't need to schedule every single hour. Maybe some mornings can just unfold without a plan.

The goal is balance: enough structure to feel secure, enough emptiness to feel curious.

What Boredom Gives Us Back

When we allow our daughters to experience boredom, we give them something precious: agency over their own inner lives. We show them that they have the resources within themselves to create meaning, find joy, and generate ideas. We teach them that they don't need to be constantly entertained to be okay.

So this year, when the off week arrives and the inevitable "I'm bored" begins, take a breath. Smile. And consider it an opportunity rather than a crisis.

Because boredom isn't the problem. It might just be the gift.