Parenting expert and author of How to Raise a Teen Sarah Ockwell-Smith writes about why teens struggle with boredom over the long summer holidays and ways parents can plan to help them tackle it.
When my kids were young, the top three words that elicited a nails dragging across a blackboard response from me were “Mum, I’m bored!.” While I looked forward to long summer holidays, with imagined picture-perfect picnics, country walks, craft activities, baking and sunny days in the garden all with happy smiling children, the reality looked very different. Instead, my house would be full of moaning, and sibling bickering and frequently left wondering how to handle tantrums (mostly coming from me). The financial cost of trying to keep children entertained is high, especially in a cost-of-living crisis. Research by Trustpilot has found that the average family spend £635 over the six-week summer holidays trying to entertain their children. This sum is simply out of reach for many families, and even when you do plough cash into activities, children still complain they’re bored.
I had rose-tinted visions of the tween and teen years. I thought my children would spend hours with their noses buried in a book like I did at their age, or perhaps they would meet up with their friends to go on lengthy exploring adventures. The one thing I was not prepared for was that they still seemed to rely on me for their entertainment.
