When my sons said they were bored, I put them to work. They figured it out fairly quickly and never said that to me any longer. When they became teenagers and would whine about something, I just told them that their whining was my goal, music to my ears, fewer sounds were sweeter than their whining and meant that my job as a parent was going well.
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"I didn't care what she didn't 'low--I would boogie-woogie anyhow" John Lee Hooker