Reality is, we live in an affluent society, where such desires can be satisfied without much effort. For most of us, it doesn’t matter whether the child eats one or two ice-creams a day, whether the desired trousers cost a few francs more or less – or whether the child has a birthday or not in order to buy him the toy he or she is longing for.

As a child I dreamed of owning even half as much Playmobil as my children do…

All the more interesting were the past days for me.

My sister and I took our children on a trip of several days to the mountains. We were able to stay for a few days in an alp hut of friends – where cows are housed in the stable in spring and autumn.

After we had driven a few kilometers up the serpentine mountain road – glad that our car has such a strong engine – we were overwhelmed by the beauty of this place when we arrived.

The alp hut was very simply equipped, the outhouse outside the hut and the wood stove were the only luxuries we found there.

I love such places.  They create in me a feeling of happiness and amazement over the beauty of creation.

For the children, the first hour was fine. They discovered the hayloft where we would sleep, explored the surrounding area and tried out the outhouse.

But then, oh did boredom arise, especially among the older children.

“Mommy, I don’t know what to play anymore!”

“Mommy, I’m bored!”

“Mommy, can we watch Pink Panther on your smartphone?”

“Mommy, the outhouse stinks! Why couldn’t we take our own toilet with us?”

These were all statements from our children, which my sister and I answered with more or less humor and understanding, denying their wishes respectively.

So the children played Uno, drew and played in the hayloft – but always with this feeling of:

“Actually I am bored, but I have no choice”.

In everyday life, this feeling of boredom almost disappears. Life is strongly structured and even if we make sure that the days are not too busy, there are hardly any moments when boredom can arise. Even though I am aware that boredom is not a threat to our children but – on the contrary – a source of creativity and peace – there is rarely such a perfect environment as we have experienced during these days in the mountains.

For a moment, everything was interesting and usable for new inventions: A flat, rectangular stone suddenly turned into a smartphone, the leaves of a burdock into a bed for the stuffed animal. A bridge was built for the mountain stream, the hay was formed into a cave and the grate at the bottom of the stable was turned into a playground where you could wonderfully play catch.