Wealden Times | WT186 | August 2017 | Wedding supplement inside

Feeling Bored?
Susan Elkin explains that, when it comes to school holidays, this isn’t necessarily such a negative
Credit: FreeImages.com/Picaland
It’s the summer holidays – when we tell our children and
anyone else who cares that they get bored by the second day.
If it’s true, and I’m not convinced it is, then it’s a new thing.
I wasn’t a child who adored school. It was just something
you had to do. It was OK but I’d far rather have been
somewhere else: at the swimming bath with my friends,
playing in the park or curled up on my bed with a book
and a Mars bar, for example, as I did day after day during
the glorious holidays. Boredom was rarely an issue.
Today’s children, for all sorts of reasons – some spurious,
some driven by commerce and some very sensible – are less
independent than we were. And the loss of freedom to do
things unsupervised seems to have led, for some, to inertia and
boredom. And that, I think, is a very sad, pretty destructive thing.
On the other hand, it has led to the burgeoning of a wide
range of holiday activities for families who can afford them.
There is, for example, some sort of performing arts summer
school local to almost every child in the country – they’re run
by theatre venues, local branches of chains such as Stagecoach
and Theatretrain, drama schools and specialist organisations.
Typically participants work together for a week or a fortnight
learning skills and then present a mini-show for family and
Blackland Farm
Outdoor Activity Centre
Kayaking
Canoeing
Bungee trampolining
Rock climbing
Archery
Crate challenge
Zip wire
Abseiling
Aeroball...
...and many more!
friends. There are also US-style holiday camps, such as PGL,
where they can undertake activities including art, drama, sport
and more. Look out for entrepreneurial local independent
providers too. I recently interviewed the man who runs the
very successful Holiday Drop Off in south London – lots
of sport and happy children (and parents), it seems.
So the boredom-busting industry is alive and well. It’s
also doing a good childcare job – another relatively new
requirement now that in so many families, both parents
have to work. Although, unusually for my generation, my
parents both did too. We lived, literally, over the shop so
they were always around and able to keep half an eye on
us as we wandered through en route for a friend’s house or
the library for another half dozen books to gobble up.
Twenty-first century school holidays seem to be a matter
of “Time is something to be killed. Every minute must be
filled” as John Betjeman pithily put it. I think that if children
could only be left to their own devices just a little more
during the long summer break then they might be a) more
enterprising and imaginative than some of them are and b)
better refreshed for next term. Boredom can self-sort if it’s
allowed to. Life is not meant to be rigidly structured 24/7.
Penshurst VINTAGE
& Antiques Fair
Penshurst Village Hall TN11 8BP
Come and join us for
fun-filled activity days.
Why not have your
birthday party here too?
Blackland Farm
01342 810493
blackland@girlguiding.org.uk
www.blacklandfarm.org.uk
26 th , 27 th , 28 th August
Trade entry Saturday 9.30am
Public 10.30am–5pm
Entrance £2.00
Come and find fashionable vintage,
French brocante & antique treasures in
charming Penshurst. Enjoy delicious
cakes and tea by Rose & Olive.
wealdentimes.co.uk
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