You may have seen this article in USA Today, which I never buy, but which I will always read when it's left around in a bus or a restaurant or available free in a hotel. A mother is "bored" with her kids. Shocking! Thus far, I haven't found Lydia boring; frustrating occasionally, but never boring.
There was also a recent story in the local paper about 101 things for kids to do when they're bored.
Which got me to thinking:
1) When are you bored? AND
2) What do you do about it?
Truth is, I'm almost never bored when I am in control of my own time.
When am I bored?
*At some meetings I'm not running. (If I were to be bored at a meeting I WAS running, I wouldn't be running a very effective one.)
*When I'm doing some mundane task, usually asked by someone else. I may be the world's worst collater, you know, take one sheet each from a half dozen piles and staple them together. I quickly lose interest and one or more piles always comes out short. I'm easily distracted.
*When I'm doing a task I hate. This includes hour three of working on our taxes. Given the fact that I never GOT to hour three (or four or six or eight) when I was single and filing a 1040A (simple form) and was done in about 45 minutes leaves my wife with the heavy lifting on most of the Schedules, while I concentrate on the main form, and to do whatever calculations she requests.
What do I do about it? Music, of course, something that relies on the bass line, preferably.
What do YOU do?
4 comments:
Roger, I don't know if you've ever come across the UK forntnightly publication "Private Eye". It's a pretty fearless satirical magazine, and it writes this week:
".. it was presumably another Helen Kirwan-Taylor ... who penned a lengthy piece for the Evening Standard in October last year giving her tips for raising well-adjusted offspring: 'I can never get over how celebs talk about discipline when you know they have two-full time nanneis , and the mothe is never at home anyway. The more time you spend with your children, the better they behave. As soon as I got rid of my last nanny , the boys practically started to purr.' So tedious does she find her children that she has written a mere 46 articles about them and their various nannies for the national press in the past six years"
But to answer your questions- the only time I'm bored is occasionally when I'm driving. The solution dpends on what's on the radio, and what CDs I have in the car. I sometimes delay coming home so that I can listen to the BBC Radio 4 comedy slot at 1830 each weekday...
My mama always told me, "If you're bored, you're a boring person." I'd have to agree with you, Roger. I get mind numbingly, foot shakingy, claustrophically bored feeling at a boring meeting. Also with some sermons if there is no Bible to read. - sm
Yeah, I don't really get bored on my own. If I retired tomorrow, I know that I could fill my time just fine. Of course, I won't be able to retire for another thirty years -- maybe longer with all my debt. Sigh.
I do, however, get bored listening to colleagues talk about history as little flags on maps.
I also needm, if I'm in line, reading material, which will make all the difference between time well spent and time wasted.
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