In general, laziness in child heroes is a big no-no. But there is definitely a happy medium so far as children’s book creators are concerned. Once you become so busy that you neglect your loved ones, you’re working too hard.
Many children’s books are about grandparents and grandchildren. In many stories, only the grandparent has time to spend with the grandchild because the parents are too busy working. Perhaps, off-stage, the sandwich generation also busy looking after the grandparents themselves.
English writer William Mayne demonstrated this ideology, explained by Alison Lurie:
Several of Mayne’s books are marked by an alliance between the very young and the very old, who have clear if idiosyncratic memories of the past and speak to children as equals. Middle-aged people, such as parents and teachers, are often preoccupied and uncomprehending. Their interaction with the child characters is practical: they make rules, set tasks and pack lunches. When children and parents (or teachers) speak to each other, the tone is detached and cool — sometimes, indeed, [Harold] Pinteresque.
Don’t Tell The Grownups: The subversive power of children’s literature
Sometimes it’s the animal who is the stand-in for the child, and the child is too busy for the animal.
In Mog’s Christmas by Judith Kerr it is implied Mog’s family is too busy, because they don’t have time to pay Mog any attention. This is seen as motivation for Mog leaving the house and going to sit on the roof in the snow. (I’m going down to the garden to eat worms…)
Sometimes the characters are too busy to ‘stop and smell the roses’ and enjoy nature. They may be punished for their lack of noticing when something they should have seen jumps out to bite them. After that they learn to pay attention to their surrounds. In children’s literature, children are thought to be better noticers than adults. This ideology can be seen in Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing, for instance, and also in the character development of Fern in Charlotte’s Web.
FURTHER READING
THE DREAD OF IDLENESS
There are many apparent reasons why people engage in activity, such as to earn money, to become famous, or to advance science. In this report, however, we suggest a potentially deeper reason: People dread idleness, yet they need a reason to be busy. Accordingly, we show in two experiments that without a justification, people choose to be idle; that even a specious justification can motivate people to be busy; and that people who are busy are happier than people who are idle. Curiously, this last effect is true even if people are forced to be busy. Our research suggests that many purported goals that people pursue may be merely justifications to keep themselves busy.
Idleness aversion and the need for justifiable busyness by Christopher K Hsee, Adelle X Yang, Liangyan Wang.
WHY DO PEOPLE SAY THEY’RE SO BUSY?
So I think one thing that’s hard is that with both the importance game and the leveling game, there is an element of disguise. We don’t play them explicitly. […] you can’t actually just say to someone, let’s empathize with one another, something like that. [For example] in [an] academic context [it’s] talking about busyness. Academics talk a lot about how busy they are. And for a long time, this sort of puzzled me because I don’t think we’re the busiest people. […] it’s a way of playing both games at the same time. So if I tell you that I’m really busy, I’m telling you that I feel stressed, I feel overworked, I feel like I’m not in control of my life, […] you can empathize with me. But at the same time, I’m also telling you that look at all these people who want a piece of me. I’m pretty important, right?
Agnes Callard, Status Games, Polyamory and the Merits of Meritocracy
Research shows that humans tend to do whatever it takes to keep busy, even if the activity feels meaningless to them. Dr Brené Brown from the University of Houston describes being “crazy busy” as a numbing strategy we use to avoid facing the truth of our lives.
Are we too busy to enjoy life? by Anne-Laure Le Cunff
