My parents believed it was important to insist that children have some "boring time" each day. That's what they called it when we children complained. Their idea was that within this "boring time" would come ideas and new areas of rich life. When I grew into adulthood and became acquainted with eastern philosophy, I learned my parents had something. Eastern philosophers call this "empty" time as balanced with "full" time. How many of us run a treadmill listening to music or reading a book? My parents would have advised against this as would eastern philosophers.