Some kids nowadays may be less bored in summer

As a kid, I remember spending most of my summers whining to my mother, “I’m bored. There’s nothing to do around here. Can we please do something?”


To which she replied, “Go outside and find something to do.”

“Ugghhh. You always say that. Outside is boring, too,” I would reply.

My boredom stemmed from the fact that we lived in the country, miles away from any people my own age, and playing with my younger sister was torture. And since we didn’t have rattlesnakes, bears, mountain cliffs and raging rapids where we lived, outside was, frankly, kind of boring.

Going to a friend’s house or having one over was bliss, for a little while at least until that got boring, too, as it always did. For some reason, we’d eventually get bored with everything we were doing, and then our collective boredom was more boring than our individual boredom. This massive boredom usually led to fighting, which made things less boring, but the hostility was worse than the boredom, so a world of summer fun became even more distant.

Although I occasionally hear the same whining now from my 6-year-old son, Braden, it’s not as prevalent because his summer has been full of fun activities.

Most of these fun activities take place at his daycare, Canaland Christian Day Care in Stevens Point, through its “Camp Summer Fun” program. Designed for children entering first grade and up, Camp Summer Fun has been loaded with field trips, physical and brain activities, and the opportunity for kids to interact with each other.

Field trips have been taken to the Mead Wildlife Center, the Appleton Children’s Museum, a zoo in Madison, Noah’s Ark in Wisconsin Dells, the Rudolph Cheese Factory and plenty of other places throughout the state.

Twice a week they go swimming, which is a priority for most children, as it was for me growing up. We lived a half mile from the White River near Neshkoro, and we’d spend hours every day in it, alleviating some of our boredom. Jumping off the bridge into the shallow waters is something I would never allow Braden to do today, at any age, but what my parents didn’t know back then never worried them.

The kids have so much fun at Camp Summer Fun, Braden often expresses disappointment when it’s a weekend day and he has to stay home. “Home is so boring. I want to go to Camp Summer Fun.”

“Well, go outside and do something,” I’ll tell him.

“Ugghhh. You always say that. Outside is so boring.”

What goes around, comes around, I guess.
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Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, Aug. 12, 2011.