I'm 51, and my parents signed me up for a whole smorgasbord of structured activities: Music, figure skating, swimming, etc. Gradually, most of those activities fell by the wayside, but I stuck with music, and my involvement increased in intensity -- private lessons on two instruments, a third instrument in the school band, playing in the local community orchestra, etc.

We are filling our kid's time with all these structured activities to "enrich" their lives. To give them a leg up in the adult world. To make them smarter and well rounded. We fill our houses with a whole bunch of "enriching" toys.

Yup, that was my life.

Yet, I had plenty of free time. What gives? The missing variable is schoolwork. The schools that I attended assigned very little homework, and it was generally easy to finish, during class time, plus a few hours maximum, per week at home. Indeed, even with my structured activities, I still watched TV, played outside, and pursued my own interests. Today, our leaders tell us that kids should learn how to code. I taught myself programming and electronics when I wasn't doing homework.

Today, the kids have hours of inane homework every evening, and much of it is configured to practically require using the computer, with all of its distractions and productivity pitfalls. We still want them to have enriching activities -- my kids are as involved in music as I was. Yes, free time gets squeezed out, but I don't think parents are entirely to blame. A normal childhood should have plenty of time for both structured and unstructured activity.

There are, as they say, many ways to Rome. I discovered most interests myself, my parents had absolutely nothing to do with them.

There is no right or wrong here.

The point I was trying to make was just that my generation seem to be more impatient in general which is a shame as we do need people who understand things in depth.

There is no boredom in the modern world. The Internet is an endless cesspool of poor quality entertainment, expertly arranged to give us the impression that we learn something or interact meaningfully with other people.

Believing that a child will improve themselves and realize their potential without guidance and an appropriate amount of forcing is, in my opinion, misguided.

Science disagrees with you.

http://www.bbc.com/news/education-21895704

http://greatist.com/happiness/benefits-of-boredom

Nobody said you shouldn't guide your child sometimes but sometimes your child needs to guide themselves too. We are taking away the latter in the modern world.

I got bored during school pretty much every class, and I filled that time with doodling on paper, then writing stories and poetry, then trying to come up with my own language, then teaching myself programming by making games on my calculator.

I should also note that I wasn't supposed to be doing any of that stuff, and I would have gotten in trouble with the teacher if they caught me doing it and "not paying attention".

Based on my anecdotal experience, I do believe that there's something to the 'boredom leads to children developing their creativity' assertion, as stated in that bbc article.

I don't think it's misguided at all in fact it gets to the very essence of what it could mean to be successful in a modern world. The ability to develop you on your own premises rather than the rest of the modern worlds.

Exactly!

Boredom is very very important early on.

It's something you have to internalize and become familiar with and not fear. Way too many adults try and make sure their kids aren't bored IMO and thus the kids start fearing it because they never learned what a powerful engine for reflection and thinking it actually become.

Thats something you have to train.

Kids can get cranky and annoying when they are bored. It's so easy for an adult to give them an iPad when they are on the train to shut them up (so to speak). The less they learned to deal with these feelings themselves the more they begin to "need" the iPad for idle time and the more cranky and annoying they can get without it. Its a positive feedback loop.

And the parent learned that when it's bored, he pulls out a smoke, grabs a beer/food/chocolate, not being aware what he's doing when giving the iPad. It might seem more healthy compared to those, but it's really the same convenient habit.

If I leave my kids for themselves they will spend all time watching Netflix and playing Minecraft. It's just better than watching TV.