Boredom

I'm sure some of the boredom I see in children and young adults comes from the fact that most parents are so busy there's no time to encourage their children to "make their own fun". The other problem is that when "fun" is provided for a price, children never learn to make their own.

My Dad talks about how he and his brothers were always trying to "make their own fun". He tells about the time they worked all day making a sort of scooter that looked a lot like what skateboards do now. They took a 2x4 and nailed old skates (the kind that required a key to enlarge the skates) to the bottom. They were going to skate down a large hill. The board would make it about 10 feet and fall apart. They would laugh and take it back to the garage to begin another round of talks, laughs and redesign. It never worked well, but it was a wonderful learning experience and provides humorous stories even now. (Write him and ask him to put the story on his blog. http://www.pastorken.com/

Kids will always be better if you teach them to enjoy hobbies. Allow your boys to work on motors and your girls to develop crafts - or vice versa. Whatever you do, teach your children to be creative.

I was horrified at the second story on the front page of my Sunday paper:

"Need a new life?" Millions explore virtual world of Second Life.

http://www.cantonrep.com/archive/index.php?ID=363909&r=0&Category=20&subCategoryID=0

(Sorry I don't know how to do the smaller link thing, so you may have to paste and copy - if you know how to do it, send me info.)

If you can go to this article and read the entire thing, I encourage you to do so. It's alarming to me. Teens and young adults that build a second life. My question.....what is wrong with their first life? Where are their good friends, good parents, good experiences? Why spend four days with little sleep building a "fake" life when you could go outside and meet someone down the street and build a "real" life?

Does this bother any of you???? It's like the entire issue of "war on drugs". When is someone going to ask the question - why would a ten year old need drugs? What is so wrong with their life that they get hooked on drugs or that they become an alcoholic? If parents are that bad, make them go to a special school that teaches them how to be good parents. Get a judge to sentence the parents to 4 years of training or a happy child whichever comes first.

So my question to these 4 million people is....what is so wrong with your first life? I can understand a six year old playing with paper dolls, but a 25 year old man trying to pick up a 16 year old virtual girl is just plain crazy. Anyone got an answer? It's not just that maybe they need a savior because there are Christians in this. We need to take a look at why so many people want to run from their real life.

Oh my Debbie, maybe I just better say this:

God loves you and so do I.....

Let me hear from you....

Debbie