Great, be bored

I would like to know the meaning of "great" in the "Great, be bored"

1. very good

2. very bad

If something isn't going on, many kids feel bored and restless, almost

desperate to find something to do. Many kids feel they can't live without a smartphone in their hand, a television set playing at virtually

every moment, or a computer game to entertain them.

The solution isn't to feed them ideas of things that they can do to

alleviate their boredom. As you know, they will usually reject your

ideas anyway. A bigger issue, however, is that in the long run you're

doing a disservice to your kids. By offering too many suggestions about

ways to keep busy, you are actually feeding the problem by suggesting

that the kids really do need something to do every minute of every day.

A great solution (and one that will shock your bored kids) is to

respond to the "I'm bored" line with a confident "Great, be bored."

You can even go on and say "It's good for you to be bored once in a

while." I can almost guarantee you that, once you try this a few times

and really mean it, your kids will give up on the idea that it's your

responsibility to entertain them on an ongoing basis. A hidden benefit

to this strategy is that it will encourage greater creativity in your kids

by forcing them to discover things to do on their own.