Every puzzle has been assembled.

Every banana has been baked into bread.

Every episode of The Mandalorian has been watched.

Every book on Amazon has been read.

Every trail has been hiked.

After seven months of hanging with COVID, my teenagers wear their boredom like a ratty bathrobe. It clings to them, old and tattered, difficult to shed after all these months.

Parents are notoriously irked by the boredom complaint. How, exactly, can you be bored with so many streaming services and gaming consoles? All we had was Atari, and even that could only be played with your siblings, who cheated, but you had to let them cheat because you’re the big sister and that’s what big sisters do, Wendi.

Sorry. Sibling scars never really go away.

Anyway, I respond as parents have likely responded since Pompeii was still a thriving town, since London’s bridge was brand new since megafauna still roamed the Western plains.

Boredom is good for you.

It’s probably how Atari and Netflix came into existence.

But Teddy McDarrah, writing for Forbes, offers a lengthier explanation. That’s great because a lengthier explanation will suck uptime. It might also deter my teens from further boredom complaints.

McDarrah references two types of boredom. There’s boredom arising from an identifiable cause. Who doesn’t get bored in the drive-thru lines that are now six, seven, eight cars deep? Or during commercials when watching live TV?

This boredom is temporary. Instead of cursing at the car in front of you, who apparently is ordering everything on the Starbucks menu, a gentle reminder of the ephemeral nature of this boredom can go a long way.

But pandemic boredom is more expansive. It has no identifiable end. This boredom doesn’t offer a six-piece McNugget and Coke at the end. It doesn’t offer the stunning conclusion of this week’s Grey’s Anatomy. It just is.

McDarrah suggests we look at this boredom as a vacuum. Nature abhors a vacuum, which I always thought came from Mr. Spock but my Google search shows actually came from Aristotle.

Look at that chasm as something to be filled, rather than combated. Altering your perspective – or your teenagers’ – might make finding ways to fill that time easier.

At least until the next season of The Mandalorian.

McDarrah’s full article can be found here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wendi Rank is a Willow Grove native with a graduate degree from LaSalle University. She has worked as a school nurse, a registered nurse, and a nurse practitioner in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She has previously written for the journal Nursing.

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