Before Screens Took Over: 10 Things We Did When We Were Bored

There was once a phrase every parent knew well: “Mom, I’m bored.”

And the answer? “Then find something to do.”

And somehow, we did.

Before screens became the go-to solution for nearly every empty moment, boredom was simply part of childhood. There was not always an activity waiting for us, and sometimes we genuinely had no idea what to do with ourselves. So we searched, improvised, wandered, and invented.

Looking back, some of our best childhood memories were born precisely in those moments when there was “nothing to do.”

1. We Called a Friend—On the Family Phone

When we were bored, one of the first options was finding out whether a friend was just as bored as we were. But that meant using the family phone.

We dialed a number we sometimes knew by heart and waited for someone to answer. Sometimes it was their mom. Sometimes their dad. Sometimes an older sibling. Finally, our friend came to the phone, and we asked the all-important question: “Do you want to come over?”

And if they were not home? There was no text to send and no waiting for a reply. We simply tried again later or called someone else.

2. We Went Outside to See Who Was Around

Sometimes we did not even bother calling.

When boredom at home became unbearable, we simply went outside. There were no plans and no guarantee that anyone would be waiting for us.

If there were kids outside, great. If not, we wandered around for a while and hoped someone would eventually appear.

Finding just two or three other kids was enough to start a game of tag, hide-and-seek, jump rope, hopscotch, soccer, or something we invented on the spot.

And often, the signal that playtime was over was hearing Mom calling us home.

3. We Built a “House” Out of Whatever We Could Find

A few chairs, some blankets, and the couch cushions—and suddenly we had a house, fort, tent, or secret hideout.

Sometimes we rearranged half the living room just to create a tiny space we could crawl inside. We did not need a special fort-building kit. We used whatever was available, and our imaginations did the rest.

Of course, we could spend an hour building it, play inside for 15 minutes, and then leave our parents with the entire mess.

4. We Flipped Through the Same Photo Albums Again and Again

Before thousands of photos were available at the tap of a screen, families had photo albums.

Big, heavy albums, sometimes with pages already beginning to yellow. When we were bored, we pulled them out and looked through photographs we had already seen dozens of times.

There was Dad when he was young, Mom in high school, us as babies, and that relative we were still not entirely sure how we were related to.

And if someone happened to close their eyes just as the camera clicked? There was no burst of 20 photos to choose from. That was the picture—and into the album it went.

5. We Waited for a Song on the Radio

Want to hear your favorite song? You could not simply search for it and press play. You had to wait for the radio station to decide it was time.

And if you wanted to record it onto a cassette, that became an entire operation.

Cassette ready. Finger hovering over the Record button. Waiting.

Then the opening notes finally came on, and you pressed the button as quickly as possible, hoping the DJ would not start talking over the intro.

Anyone who remembers doing this also remembers how satisfying it was to eventually have an entire cassette filled with songs you had recorded yourself.

6. We Made Up Games With Paper and a Pen

When there really was nothing to do, a piece of paper and a pen could fill an entire afternoon.

We played Categories, tic-tac-toe, hangman, Battleship, or drew mazes for one another. Sometimes we invented completely new games, complete with rules that somehow changed whenever the person who created them started losing.

And if we were alone, we drew, wrote, or doodled.

Nothing had to be impressive or productive. We were simply finding a way to pass the time.

7. We Opened the Fridge Again and Again

Some childhood habits have survived the arrival of every new technology.

Bored? Open the fridge. Look around. Find nothing interesting. Close it.

Ten minutes later? Open it again.

Perhaps a chocolate cake had somehow appeared since the last inspection.

Most of the time, we were not even hungry. We were simply looking for something to do, and for some reason, the refrigerator seemed like a promising place to start.

8. We Read Whatever Was Around

When you are bored enough, almost anything can become reading material.

A newspaper left in the living room. An old magazine. A comic book. A book we had already read. Even the back of the cereal box at breakfast.

There was no endless stream of new content refreshing every few seconds. We read what was available.

And because we could not choose from thousands of options, we sometimes ended up reading things we never would have deliberately chosen—and discovering that they were actually interesting.

9. We Played With Things That Were Never Meant to Be Toys

A cardboard box became a car. A sheet became a tent. The couch became a deserted island. And, of course, the floor could suddenly become lava that absolutely could not be touched.

Clothespins, chairs, cushions, boxes—almost anything in the house could take on a completely different role if we were bored enough.

We did not always have a ready-made activity, so we created one. Sometimes a couple of ordinary household objects and a little imagination were enough to fill an entire afternoon.

10. And Sometimes... We Were Just Bored

Yes, sometimes we did absolutely nothing.

We lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling. We sat by the window. We wandered aimlessly around the house and announced for the tenth time: “I’m bored.”

And no one immediately rushed to solve the problem for us.

So we stayed bored for a while.

Then, eventually, something usually happened. We came up with an idea. We pulled out a game. We started drawing. We went outside. We called a friend. Or we invented something that no adult had suggested at all.

It is easy to look back nostalgically and imagine that everything was better then. Of course it was not. Children complained about being bored then just as they do today, and we certainly wished someone would entertain us.

But there was one important difference: Not every empty moment was immediately filled.

Sometimes there truly was nothing to do. And in that empty space, we had little choice but to use our imaginations and figure out what came next.