Letting Kids Be Bored While Still Making Memories
We’re in that strange pocket of winter break, the days after Christmas but before New Year’s Eve.
The decorations are still up.
The weather isn’t great, but at least the wind has finally died down. Kids are restless. Parents are tired. Nobody knows what day it is anymore.
It’s also the time of year when people love to say, “The days are long, but the years are short.”
Which is true.
And also wildly incomplete, and truthfully…usually said by people who aren’t in the thick of raising young kids anymore.
Letting Kids Be Bored Isn’t a Failure
Somewhere along the way, boredom got a bad reputation.
Letting kids be bored started sounding like something irresponsible parents do when they’ve “given up.” But boredom isn’t neglect, it’s a necessary pause.
When kids are bored, they:
- figure out how to entertain themselves
- stretch their imagination
- learn frustration tolerance
- build independence without constant direction
Not every hour needs a plan.
Not every day needs to be memorable.
But Sometimes, You Choose the Moment
Letting kids be bored doesn’t mean opting out of their childhood.
It means choosing your moments intentionally.
Some days, boredom is exactly what kids need. Other days, you lean in, maybe it’s a walk, a late night, or a simple New Year’s Eve tradition that feels different from the rest of the year.
Speaking of New Year’s Eve, nowadays there are hundreds of options for little kids to attend “Noon Year’s Eve” celebrations. What started as a cool idea is turning into the next picture perfect jam packed expectation. It’s not for everyone, but if you want to go, you can find one on just about every corner.
But if you’re navigating New Year’s Eve with tweens or teens, you have approximately 5 options for something fun on New Year’s Eve. Local realtor Justin Ogburn recently shared a thoughtful guide on things to do with teens and tweens on New Year’s Eve. It strikes a balance between honoring their independence and still making the night feel special.
And when winter break stretches on and boredom turns into cabin fever, this roundup of winter activities for kids in Bellevue offers ideas without pressure to fill every moment.
Don’t get us wrong, these resources are helpful, but they’re options, not expectations. We are still on the “let them be bored” train, we just took a short detour here.
Boredom Is What Makes Reset Possible
In martial arts, there’s a simple idea that comes up again and again:
reset, refocus, remember.
You reset when something feels off. You refocus when your attention has drifted. You remember why you’re there in the first place.
But here’s the part that doesn’t get talked about enough:
You can’t reset, refocus, or remember if you’re constantly busy.
Boredom is what creates the pause. It’s the space where your nervous system settles. It’s the moment where you realize you’ve been pushing instead of paying attention. When kids are overscheduled and overstimulated, there’s no room to reset. There’s just momentum. More noise. More activity. More distraction.
The same is true for parents.
Sometimes boredom is the cue.
Not to add something new, but to stop.
That’s often when perspective sneaks back in, it’s when you refocus and remember what actually matters.
Now let’s do a little story time.
The Longest Day I Can Remember
When my son was about 18 months old, we had one of those days.
He was sick.
Diarrhea sick.
Our dog, who was also sick, sadly with cancer, was dealing with the same thing.
It was, quite literally, a $hitshow.
After countless diaper changes and watching my son shake in fear because his skin was chafed and painful, I finally decided we needed to get out of the house. I loaded him into the stroller, leashed our 80-pound dog, and headed out.
It started raining a block in.
I turned around to go home, and the dog had diarrhea in someone else’s yard. I did my best with a bag and… some grass. Mortifying.
Then my son went again and started screaming.
I somehow made it home carrying a screaming toddler, holding a leash, and dragging a wagon.
Once inside, the dog had another accident. Then my son again. I put my son in the bathtub with soothing salts, and of course, he went again in the water. The drain was at the bottom of the tub, so yes, I had to reach in.
It was the longest day I can remember.
I was not grateful for any of it, I just wanted to go to hand off the responsibility and forget that it ever happened.
When You Were Fine… Until You Weren’t
There’s another layer to all of this that doesn’t get talked about enough.
You can be having a perfectly fine day.
And then you open social media, and you see something like this.
Suddenly, a quiet layer of guilt wraps itself around you.
You start mentally tallying:
- Am I doing enough?
- Are we making enough memories?
- Should I be more present?
- More intentional?
- More grateful?
- More everything?
Images like this are designed to make parenting feel like a countdown clock. Each phase neatly labeled. Each season finite. A subtle warning embedded in the message: Don’t mess this up.
But real life doesn’t move in clean stages.
It moves in long afternoons. Days when you don’t feel good but you have to show up anyway. Imperfect holidays. Seasons that overlap.
Moments you only understand later.
And the truth is, most of us are already doing enough.
We don’t need reminders that time is passing, we already feel that in our bones.
What we don’t need is the idea that if we aren’t constantly maximizing every phase, we’re somehow failing our kids.
You don’t have to turn every day into a keepsake. You don’t have to be aware, in real time, that you’re in “the good years.”
Remember when you were a kid? Your parents probably got 10-15 usable pictures a year of you (maybe). They certainly weren’t booking camps and play dates and all of the other things that are popular these days. There is nothing wrong with camps and play dates, but we had a lot more downtime 30 years ago, and it’s something that needs to make a comeback.
And parents don’t need to perform gratitude on demand to prove their love.
Sometimes, being a good parent looks like surviving the day, closing the app, and choosing rest instead of comparison.
Long Days Don’t Require Gratitude Journals
Back to the bad day story. A few weeks later, I had to put that sick dog to sleep.
And even after that day, the worst, messiest, most exhausting day, I would have given anything for one more healthy day with him.
That day was long.
Did I appreciate it while it was happening? No.
Do I want to relive it? Also no.
But that doesn’t mean I loved him any less.
Sometimes the conversation around parenting and especially around letting kids be bored, comes wrapped in forced gratitude. As if you’re supposed to cherish every moment while you’re barely surviving it.
You don’t need to romanticize the hardest days to prove your love.
Finding Balance During Winter Break
Winter break asks a lot of parents.
Be grateful.
Be present.
Make memories.
Don’t overdo it.
Let them be bored, but also cherish everything.
And for many of us…we’re also working full time right alongside all of this! There aren’t enough hours in the day….
The truth is, balance is the point.
Letting kids be bored gives them room to grow.
Showing up when you can builds connection. And accepting that some days are just long keeps expectations realistic.
The days may be long.
The years may be short.
And both things can be true without pretending every moment is magical.
That’s enough.