A Love Affair With A Box: Children Today Are Still Creative

It has been a while since I have posted something about parenting and my experiences as a single parent but today, I am not going to give you tips but lessons learned from a humble balikbayan box. Last week, we received a very big box from our sister working as a nurse in KSA. The kids were very much excited about the box and they have been telling us to open it so that they can see what it contains but we waited until the weekend so that we can take our time unloading the contents and cleaning up afterwards.

It took us about two hours to unload, unwrap and organize the contents and the kids seemed happy with the pasalubongs. They even went as far as made gasping sounds when we opened the wrappings. However,  what made them overly excited are not really the contents but the box itself. As soon as the last item was unloaded, they immediately dove into it and pretended that they were in a cave.  They reminded me of an episode from Spongebob Squarepants wherein Spongebob, after buying an enormous television set, threw the TV because he and his friend Patrick only wanted to play inside the box. The kids also reminded me of my distant past when computer games for me are foreign and that having fun means playing in the dirt until mother would cry out for us to get inside the house to take a bath.

I have this  belief that because of the many distractions due to technology, children today are no longer creative.  Unfortunately, my daughter is somewhat infected with the internet bug and she would always stare at YouTube to watch K-pop videos or other videos that she fancies the moment she wakes up.  Watching her play inside the box with her cousin is refreshing and it made me realize that the magic of the box still transcends through time and that children today, despite of the many distractions, are still creative.