Boring

“Is school boring?”

This is a question Olivia has asked me several times this week.

The first time, I just smiled and told her, “No! School is where you learn new things and get to see your friends. What could be boring about that?”

She just blinked at me a few times and went back to whatever she’d been doing before she asked the question.

The second time she asked I decided to turn it back to her and replied, “Do you think school is boring?”

She gave it some thought and decided, “It’s kind of boring but only because I can’t play when I want and I have to get up early to go to school.”

Such a typical response, don’t you think?

I know Olivia is not typical. But in so many ways, she’s just a regular first grader who doesn’t like being roused from a warm bed on a cold morning, made to eat breakfast before she’s hungry, bundled up and herded onto a cold bus where she’ll then be corralled into a classroom for seven or so hours.

Most of us have been there and understand her ‘boredom.’ Who wouldn’t rather stay home, snuggle in bed until 8am, get up, play for a bit, watch a little television, eat when we’re hungry and then rinse and repeat throughout the day?

I kind of love that she’s able to vocalize her sense of boredom and her desire for a different routine. Of course, she’s eight, she has to go to school (no one in our house is able/willing to homeschool, so traditional public schooling it is) and so she goes. But I understand and even commiserate with a little grumbling as she stares down yet another school day.