“I’m bored,” a snot-nosed kid once said at my house.

Game over.

As if by magic, my mother pulled a broom from behind her back and brought him into the garage. She made him sweep the garage, the shed, the kitchen, and then asked, “Are you still bored?”

I can assure you, he wasn’t.

It seems the more we use our cell phones and iPods and other such nonsense, the more we need them for entertainment.

You see, growing up my siblings and I knew better than to be bored, because only boring people get bored. If things started to get unexciting, we would start a conversation, or a fistfight, or play a board game. Usually it was a violent fist fight that forced my mother to take someone shopping for new glasses weekly.

I offer you a challenge. The next time you are bored, do something. Read, draw, engage the person next to you in conversation, or just spend some time thinking to yourself.

And if you hear someone complain about boredom, hand them a broom.