"then the answer is No". That's one of our favorite responses when interrupted by one of our children during a discussion. Usually the interruption is because the child wants something right away.

It is the single most difficult job in parenting these days to teach patience in a world that is designed to remove it. I read recently where one of the major problems with children today is not knowing how to deal with boredom. It's a parent's job to teach those skills even though it's as grating to the child as fingernails on a chalkboard.

I cringe when I see DVD players installed in minivans. Our vehicles will never have them. I cherish the thoughts of the long monotonous drives our family used to take across country. I was glued to the windows or rapt in a Bobsie Twins adventure book. We'd sing together - dumb and silly songs but it was the first place I learned harmony and how to stay in my part during a round. Today even that is gone since radios and CD players supply the music instead.

Somehow I found fascination in even the most barren and featureless landscapes we crossed. My kids today seem shocked if I'd advise them to simply look out the window and watch the country go by instead of bickering. It takes breathtaking scenes to really get their attention now. I don't blame them though. Their world is intensely different than mine was. I had 3 tv stations to choose from. Music came over AM radio. TV shows and movies weren't graphic and realistic. They relied on my imagination to fill in the blanks.

We never saw an actual car chase or a bank robbery from a news station's helicopter played out over and over. The times when a photographer actually captured a newsworthy sequence were extremely rare as in the case of the Hindenburg disaster. Instead, anchors were master orators that described the scenes and allowed you to paint the picture in your mind. Katie Couric hardly fits that bill.

Games weren't on a computer but relied on gatherings of other humans and real interaction. Musical instruments were a major investment and took real work to master. There was no single button to create a complex drum track or frets to light up on a guitar to show you where to place your fingers. With today's electronics, a complete novice can create a professional sound out of an electric guitar, without knowing a lick about musical structure. You can create Hollywood movies on your camcorder with the incredible software that's included in the box. I still remember splicing together curled up snippets of 8mm movie film and thinking I was the next Hitchcock.

My wife and I insist on boredom in our children's lives and it will be a fight until they go out on their own.

Art