Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Daydreaming: good or bad?

My DS5 (6 next week!) told me this out of the blue yesterday: "When I get bored at school, I like to daydream." I told him I thought that was probably a good thing, but maybe he could grab some paper and write stories about his daydreams.

I guess I thought this was good because (1) he is talking about it, and (2) he's found some sort of coping mechanism. He's underchallenged and this is a nondisruptive activity. What do all of you think?

I think it depends on frequency. There is a joke that being in below readiness level educational setting trains kids into ADD. Is there a grain of truth in the joke? Who knows, but I think a child deserves some boredom and lots of learning at school.

Is DS5 happy to go to school? In a way being happy to be serverely underchallenged is worse than being unhappy about it, in my book.

What do you think SPG?

Love and More Love,
Grinity

I'll have to investigate more, but I don't think the daydreaming is taking up a huge portion of the day. I think he's generally OK with school, and the school continues to work to create appropriate programming. That said, I will guess that there are still plenty of opportunities to daydream.

I agree with you - if he were clearly happy that he wasn't being challenged, that would worry me. I'm glad that he's sharing that he's bored and would prefer more challenging work. The alternative - happy to be coasting -- would be much worse.

A little bit of daydreaming is something to celebrate, as is his sharing that with you. Balance is tough!

I am a big daydreamer. Always have been. I do think it's a coping mechanism for whatever ails--for me it was useful during my parents' divorce. I notice that my kids all daydream as well. It doesn't concern me really. The only negative I see is lack of productivity if you daydream too much.

But, if he does it because he's bored at school, you probably should address the boredom issue, independent of whether daydreaming is good or not.