Research suggests the 1960s and 70s produced adults who could self-soothe, entertain themselves, and tolerate boredom — not because their parents were wise, but because their parents were simply elsewhere

Say the two most dangerous words a child of 1971 could utter: “I’m bored.” Or the legendary threat: “I’ll find you something to do” — which meant chores, which meant you’d never say it again. Or simply a look, over the top of the newspaper, that communicated the household’s entire philosophy: your boredom is not my department. The adult returned to being fundamentally elsewhere, and the child was left alone with an empty afternoon and a problem to solve. What “elsewhere” got wrong — and the dose worth keepingHonesty now, because “parents were simply elsewhere” was not a parenting philosophy.