LOUIS BURKE | Culture | CONTACT
A groundbreaking study from Melbourne University of Motherhood (MUM) has concluded that the best cure for boredom is to clean your bedroom, something that mum, apparently knew all along.
The scientific study was launched five years ago by a group of mothers and scientists who wanted to determine the most effective way to end the complaints of boredom that is typically associated with weekends and school holidays.
Research leader, Dr Catherine Kennedy PhD, says she is amazed by the results of the landmark study.
“We found that the frequency in which children stated ‘Mum, I’m bored,’ reduced by 80% when responded to with ‘Well then, clean your room!’”
“This is contrasted against a 29% decrease when told ‘Go play with your brother/sister’ and just an 8% decrease when told ‘Why don’t you play outside?’”
Dr Kennedy states that while the results are outstanding for parents, the one shortcoming of the study was a lack of correlation between telling children to clean their room if they’re bored and them actually doing it.
Out of the of children studied who were told to clean their room, the 80% of them who did not state their boredom a second time, were found to have instead played a video game, watched TV or simply stared at a blank patch of wall, rather than clean their bedroom.
“As a scientist, I can tell you the results are inconclusive. As a mum, I can tell you their room is still bloody messy and it’s no good for my blood pressure.”
The team at MUM are soon to launch a study into determining how children cannot like what’s for dinner, even if they’ve never tried it before.
