Analog Weekends - Bringing Back Board Games and Boredom on Purpose

Let's talk about the Indian home with children. Saturday, cartoons or YouTube while making breakfast, some time to do afternoons out followed by hours on screens on Sunday. Kids are happy enough, aren't bothered, even say so. But by Sunday evening, there is often a strange flatness about the place.

A new trend is catching on among Indian parents, to have the analog weekend; that is, two days without screens as the default.

Why Boredom is a Good Thing - What Scientists are Saying

A 2019 study published in the Academy of Management Discovery found that subjects who were allowed to be bored first, demonstrated significantly higher levels of creativity on subsequent tasks than those who were engaged in a stimulating activity first before the task. Boredom stimulates the default mode network of the brain, which is also associated with day-dreaming, mind-wandering, self-processing, and creativity.

Developmental psychologist Stuart Brown discovered that the most essential source of unstructured, unsupervised fun for kids, punctuated by unavoidable boring times, leads to imagination, higher creativity, and self-regulation.

It's all about building imaginative abilities as a child, which is why kids who are constantly stimulated by screens or toys or other adults are unable to sit still when given nothing. Kids Need Time to Become Bored

Without boredom, how would they learn to be entertained?

Why Board Games are a Good Start (While They're Becoming Analog)

Board games are a much better option than television or computers for the following reasons:

They require a certain amount of physical interaction

you have to be in the same space as each other, take turns, deal with the frustration of losing, and the satisfaction of winning (a lesson adults rarely learned growing up)

They are social

there is an intimacy and connection that is hard to replicate

They build emotional intelligence

they teach you how to handle winning and losing, which is a skill few young adults possess today

They teach you to deal with loss and disappointment

video games, the closest comparator, only let you replay levels until you beat them. Losing a board game is an entirely different prospect to grapple with.

They're often intergenerational

grandparents, parents, and children can play together. Something much harder to do across different age groups with screens.

How to Make the Analog Weekend Happen - Practical Tips

An analog weekend does not mean no screens at all, but making screens an exception rather than the rule.

• Set expectations in advance and make them simple: screens are allowed on weekends after 4 pm only. Or have a screen-free Sunday, or an hour on weekdays. Find what works for you, but make it a rule of thumb.
• Don't fill up that free time, especially in the beginning, with activities. If a child is used to screens, they will feel anxious and agitated in the first 30-45 mins of no screens, then bored after that. Let them wrestle with. Do not save them by giving them something to do.
• Have activities on hand, ready to be played or used, so that the child knows there are options. This means a games cabinet within their reach, art supplies that are not put away in a locked cupboard, a bike that is usable, etc. It's all about building habits.
• Make it a family affair, not just the kids playing while the parents are on their phones. This is a bad example to set since it implies that screens belong to the adults, and the kids are being deprived.
• Indian board games for kids and families: Ludo, Carrom, Chess, Antakshari, Dumb Charades, Snakes and Ladders, Sequence, Catan (ages 10+), Ticket to Ride (ages 8+) etc.

The first analog weekend is always the hardest. But by the third, your kids are begging for it. By the sixth, it's normal. It takes longer than a fortnight to see results, so be patient.

What is your favorite non-screen weekend activity?