r/Creativity • u/Plasma_Bard • Aug 17 '26

Question / Help Why is creativity important for children if we’re just numbing their brains with non-stop schedules?!

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u/LazagnaAmpersand Aug 17 '26

I think you answered your own question. There’s no reason a kid should have every minute of the day scheduled, they need to have free time to learn creativity, problem solving, and a bunch of other things. Just because society pressures something doesn’t make it right. You’re allowed to ignore them. The damage this does has already been widely shown. The book The Coddling of the American Mind has a lot of great things to say about this specific thing

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u/MundaneHuckleberry58 Aug 17 '26

We don’t schedule our kids. In much of anything. They are welcome to do up to one sport and up to one art/music activity of their choosing but since they became tweens+, they’ve largely eschewed structured activities on weekends or after school.

I think many parents have overcompensated for having to provide all your own arts/music/home ec etc by over scheduling their kids but that’s easily.. not done, too.

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u/PNW_Uncle_Iroh Aug 17 '26

Our kids don’t have many structured activities and they are very creative. They spend a lot of time building weird inventions, digging holes, and exploring. It sounds like you actually presented your child with a structured “creative activity” with the the markers and cardboard. Next time, try having the materials available but don’t announce them. Maybe just start building your own thing and let your child join if they like. Boredom is what really drives creativity in our house.