What to Do When Your Child Says They're Bored
Zé · Published 21 October 2026
When your child says they're bored, you don't need to find them something to do on the spot. What works is a four-step routine: acknowledge it without fixing it, offer three choices, give them ten minutes to get going, then come back and take an interest. A boredom jar, filled in advance together, does the thinking for you next time.
This guide is about boredom at home, at weekends and in the school holidays. If your child says they are bored in class, that is a different conversation, and their teacher is the best place to start.
When boredom tends to show up
“I'm bored” rarely comes out of nowhere. It tends to land at the same moments:
- Right after a screen goes off, when they have to switch from something that did all the work to something they have to start themselves.
- Between getting home from school and tea, when the energy of the day drops.
- The first days of the holidays, when the structure of the school day disappears overnight.
- Rainy weekends, or when friends are away and an only child has nobody to play with.
Behind the words there might be a genuine lack of ideas, a wish to spend time with you, or simply difficulty getting started. In each case, it is not an emergency to solve. It is the gap between one activity and the next, and your job is to help them across it, not to carry them.
What to do in four steps when they say “I'm bored”
1. Acknowledge it, don't fix it
Answer the feeling, not the problem: “Ah, you can't think of anything to do?” Avoid firing fifteen suggestions from the kitchen. Each one gets a “no”, and the conversation turns into a tug of war.
2. Offer three choices, not thirty
Three ideas that fit the moment: one that moves, one that makes something, one that is calm. “An obstacle course in the hall, a comic about your day, or the jigsaw you started yesterday?” Three options are easy to compare. A long list mostly makes them want to pick none.
3. Give it ten minutes
Once they have chosen, step away. The first few minutes are the hardest: finding the things, starting, getting it a bit wrong. If they come back after two minutes, send them gently back to their choice: “You picked the obstacle course. Show me in ten minutes.”
4. Come back and show interest
Drop by and ask about what they made (“Which bit of the course is hardest?”) rather than how long they spent on it. Next time, they are more likely to start without you.
Make a boredom jar together
The moment your child is bored is the worst moment to look for ideas: neither of you has any. Make the jar on a calm day instead, together.
- Find a container. A clean jam jar, a shoebox or a tin. Decorating it is the first activity.
- Use three colours for three lengths of time. For example, yellow slips (or lolly sticks, popsicle sticks in the US) for under 10 minutes, green for about half an hour, blue for a whole afternoon.
- Write 30 to 40 ideas, one per slip. Let your child suggest at least half of them; they know what they like better than you do.
- Agree the rule for drawing. Pick two slips of the right colour and keep the one you prefer. No putting both back.
- Keep a box of bits next to it. Paper, pencils, sticky tape, string, round-ended scissors, clean packaging, clothes pegs.
- Refresh it once a month. Take out the ideas nobody ever picks and add new ones.
Some starter slips: build a den, write a letter to a grandparent, make a paper aeroplane and test three designs, invent a secret code, draw a map of your street, do a puzzle against the clock, set up a shop with price labels, learn a card trick. For older children, add bigger ideas: plan Saturday's picnic, write a quiz for the family, make a stop-motion storyboard on paper.
Ideas that break the usual routine
A child who is bored a lot has sometimes simply run through their usual games. Three ways to freshen things up:
- Real jobs, with real responsibility. Make the family's afternoon snack from shopping list to serving, sort a box of toys into keep, give and mend, or plan the route for Sunday's walk.
- Projects that last several days. A cardboard town that grows by one building a day, a story written one chapter at a time and read out at tea, a collection of stones or leaves to sort and label.
- Challenges with a goal. “Build the tallest tower that stands for 10 seconds”, “cross the room without touching the floor”, “invent a code and get someone to crack it”. A target is often what a child on their own is missing.
For 60 more ideas sorted by time and energy, see our list of screen-free activities for kids aged 7 to 12, and for the long drive to see family, our car journey games for kids.
Habits that keep boredom going
- Planning every minute. A timetable packed from morning to night leaves a child stuck as soon as there is a gap.
- Too many suggestions. Beyond three, it becomes a game of saying no.
- Answering with a chore. “Bored? Tidy your room.” What they learn is not to tell you next time. Real jobs presented as a responsibility are a different thing.
- Switching on a screen every time. It solves the moment, but the boredom is back, unchanged, when the screen goes off.
- Doing it for them. If you build the den, it is your den. Hand over the materials and an idea, then step back.
Siblings, only children and older kids
Siblings
Two bored children together often end up in an argument. Give them a shared goal (a show for the evening, a shop with a till and price tags, a treasure hunt the older one sets for the younger one) and make the older child responsible for explaining the rules.
Only children
On their own, children need activities that work solo and have a goal: a record to beat, an object to finish, a challenge to tick off. Plan time with other children too, such as a friend round for one afternoon a week in the holidays.
Older kids, 10 to 12
“Bored” at this age often means “nothing feels worth doing”. Offer responsibility rather than entertainment: organise the family games night, run a mini escape room, cook a meal. If boredom comes with low mood or withdrawal that lasts for weeks, talk to their teacher or your GP (your child's doctor in the US).
A challenge book for the days without ideas
Our book 100 Screen-Free Challenges for ages 7 to 12 was written for exactly this moment. Each page sets out one complete challenge with the time, the number of players and the materials; 68 can be done alone. Challenge no. 64, “The good-ideas jar”, even asks your child to write ten quick activities for bored days. They tick off each challenge on a progress chart and earn badges along the way, and a guide for adults at the back gives a hint or an example for each challenge, so you can help without doing it for them. For the school holidays and trips, the holiday edition, 100 Screen-Free Holiday Challenges, has 100 other challenges for journeys, the beach, the countryside and rainy days away. Both sit in our screen-free activities section.
For the next “I'm bored”
Frequently asked questions
Is it OK to let my child be bored?
Yes. You don't have to fill every gap in their day. Acknowledge it, offer up to three ideas, then let them get on with it. A boredom jar prepared together means they have their own ideas to fall back on.
What do you put in a boredom jar?
30 to 40 short ideas your child helped choose, on slips in three colours by length: under 10 minutes, about half an hour and a whole afternoon. Think dens, letters, card tricks, secret codes, a shop, a treasure hunt.
My child is bored all the time. What should I do?
Look at when it happens: always after school, or always after a screen? A small transition routine (a snack, ten minutes outside) and a boredom jar sort out many of these moments. If it comes with low mood that lasts, speak to their teacher or your family doctor.
What can I do when my child is bored at home in the holidays?
Keep two fixed points a day, for example a trip out in the morning and a quiet hour after lunch, and leave the rest free. Have a project running over several days so there is always something to go back to.