According to parents, boredom is good for children

Berlin (AFP) – Occasionally, it is good for children to be bored and have nothing to do. 78 percent of the interviewed parents of children between the ages of six and 17 are of this opinion in a Forsa study published on Monday in Berlin for the German Children’s Fund on the occasion of World Game Day on Tuesday.

According to this, 71 percent of parents consider doing their homework and 35 percent more important than their children’s spontaneous leisure time activities.

Not enough free time besides the internet?

Mothers in particular believe that boredom is good for children’s development. Fathers, on the other hand, find it more important than mothers not to neglect family and domestic responsibilities. AfD supporters in particular are critical of the fact that occasional boredom is good for children. For 45 percent of their supporters, domestic duties are more important than spontaneous leisure activities – this is more than for any other party supporter.

In the eyes of 37 percent of the parents surveyed, the heavy use of the Internet and social media leaves their offspring little time for other leisure activities. The older the children are, the more parents agree with this statement: 52 percent of the parents of children between 14 and 17 years of age and 21 percent of the parents of children between the ages of six and ten complain about little free time besides the internet.

Kinderschutzbund advises to spend free time free of purpose

Three quarters of parents have the impression that there is enough time for their own interests in addition to school and organized hobbies such as sports clubs. However, a quarter believe that this is not possible with an average week during school time. The older the respondents’ children are, the more likely they are to make this statement.

“Unfortunately, we repeatedly find that the parents’ positive attitude towards self-determined and purposeless leisure activities is not in line with the well-organized everyday life of many children,” explained Holger Hofmann, managing director of the German Child Protection Association. For the study, 1003 parents of six to 17 year old children were interviewed in April and May. The margin of error is between minus three and plus three percentage points.

ald / cfm