ARE today’s youngsters “over-entertained” as we help them fill every minute?

Radio and TV presenter Jeremy Vine thinks so and he also believes that they could benefit from experiencing boredom. Actually, I think he’s spot on.

Jeremy, who has two daughters aged 10 and 13, was speaking at Henley Literary Festival when he made what many parents would see as highly controversial remarks. He said: “I do think boredom is important for a child” and later described his own childhood when he and his brother – the comedian Tim Vine – had to invent things to keep themselves amused.

He’s 52 and his experiences will be understood by many of that generation, as well as those before and after.

In all those years before parents felt under pressure to ensure that children took part in after-school sports, played musical instruments, joined debating and chess clubs and generally filled every minute, we had more time to fill ourselves. Just ourselves.

So, children read books, let their imagination fly playing by themselves or with others with simple things like cardboard boxes, rope and, if they were lucky, a garden with trees.

They didn’t have ipads or computer games – or even parents so focused on pleasing them that they spent large amounts of their time and money filling their playing hours with gadgets and activities.

What they learned alongside invention and self-reliance was concentration and an acceptance that not everything in life was highly exciting. Some things were slower burners and just had to be endured.

Now, if you ask many children to sit and even watch a TV programme, they won’t see it to the end, or even more than five or 10 minutes, without jumping up to do something else or grabbing their ipad or phone.

Jeremy Vine says that “boredom is good. Boredom fires the imagination” and he’s absolutely right.

Without boredom – sometimes rather than all the time – there is not the time to think, consider and mull over ideas and thoughts. Everyone, from harassed mums and dads to five year-olds with the attention span of a gnat, needs some stillness in their lives.

Tellingly, adults now pay money to go on courses or sessions that allow them to do nothing except get in touch with their thoughts. Children can be encouraged to do this voluntarily and it helps develop their thinking and emotional skills. Time really is that precious a commodity.