Eva Mendes has opened up about her summer plans for her daughters Esmeralda, 7, and Amada, 6, revealing she is “bringing boredom back” for the school holidays.
In an interview with Byrdie, the actress, 48, said: “I really feel like when we’re bored — not stimulated by a phone, an iPad, a computer or television — that’s when ideas come in.” After spending a few months in London, where long-time partner Ryan Gosling was filming, the Hitch star said she wanted her children to swap electronics for the outdoors now the family are at home.
“When we were in London, we went from musical to musical taking advantage of being back in the theatre, we went to all kinds of museums, we went to Windsor Castle — I had a tonne of field trips planned for them, which we did,” she continued. “Now, I feel like it’s time to bring boredom back, especially for the kids but for myself as well.”
While the idea of giving up the “square au pair”, aka TVs or iPads, to occupy the kids during the long, hot summer, can seem daunting to frazzled parents, Mendes could be on to something.
Sofia Stigka, a child psychologist from Thrive Wellbeing Centre by Dr Sarah Rasmi, in Dubai, says: “Boredom is the base of creative thinking, the condition that will trigger a child’s natural curiosity to discover the world around them and that will help them channel their unlimited imagination and need for movement and activity.
“It also helps them develop valuable executive functioning skills, such as problem solving, decision making, prioritisation and flexibility. This free-of-structure play promotes self-regulation and it fosters confidence, self-reliance and independence. While being bored, objects obtain new characteristics and innovative purposes, giving children the opportunity to exercise their pretend play skills."
Mother-of-three Eleanor McAlister, a primary school teacher from Ireland, has experienced the benefits of her own “summer of boredom” for her three children, aged 6, 8 and 10. For her family, this involves opening the back door and letting her kids create their own fun in the garden — with as little adult intervention as possible. “As a teacher, I’m very aware that children learn through play,” says McAlister.
“Having that freedom to play without rules is so valuable for building resilience, for learning to deal with conflict resolution and for building confidence. I resist the urge to be prescriptive and just leave my children to it and let them experiment and make up their own fun. I’ve seen them become incredibly creative in making up their own games, with their own rules, and they have begun to recognise the value of having rules, without me laying down the law.
"They have learnt to settle fights and squabbles between them, while their sense of independence and confidence has vastly improved.”
As well as stimulating them mentally, physical play can actually improve well-being too. “Practical play promotes body and hand-eye coordination, development of fine motor skills and sensory regulation,” says Stigka, who advocates going back to basics.
“The environment creates and offers different opportunities for play. Three-year-olds, for example, have all they need at the beach — sand, rocks, seashells, water and of course their hands.”
Conversely, overexposure to electronic devices deprives children of what Stigka calls “the cornerstones of a social skills set: meaningful social interactions and communication”.
“Electronic entertainment limits a child's motivation to use their own mind to come up with creative game ideas, as they rely on the electronic games’ instructions, unable to deviate from it and thinking only within the confines of the software. Consequently, social network and creativity are among the affected areas from electronic games, limiting the child's capacity to make their own fun.”
For mother-of-two Chloe Billing, from the UK, embracing free play during lockdown led to the launch of family business Me-shirt Kits, personalised T-shirt painting kits for kids. “We started our business during lockdown when I was homeschooling with a new baby in tow and I wanted to focus on my then five-year-old’s mental health through the pandemic.
“I didn’t feel it would be beneficial for any of us if she watched TV all day long and I wanted her to get something from her time with me and to have fond memories of lockdown which extended beyond finding new things to stare at on the television.
“We talked about what she’d like to do that would make things more interesting in the limited world we had been put in and we settled on an art project a day which inspired her to learn about artists and techniques and experiment with fabric painting, which led her to come up with the idea of our personalised T-shirt painting kits and we started selling them to friends. Now we are selling online and she’s been able to sell to real customers and supply kits and party bags to friends too.”
Stigka says: “Children need time to themselves, to daydream, to listen to their thoughts, to observe their environment and to respond to the stimuli that the world around them has to offer. Downtime with no exposure to electronic devices gives children the opportunity to discover their personal interests, to experience the world with a critical eye and to end up with creative ideas.”
'Nightmare Alley'
Director:Guillermo del Toro
Stars:Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara
Rating: 3/5
Quick facts on cancer
- Cancer is the second-leading cause of death worldwide, after cardiovascular diseases
- About one in five men and one in six women will develop cancer in their lifetime
- By 2040, global cancer cases are on track to reach 30 million
- 70 per cent of cancer deaths occur in low and middle-income countries
- This rate is expected to increase to 75 per cent by 2030
- At least one third of common cancers are preventable
- Genetic mutations play a role in 5 per cent to 10 per cent of cancers
- Up to 3.7 million lives could be saved annually by implementing the right health
strategies
- The total annual economic cost of cancer is $1.16 trillion
'The Sky is Everywhere'
Director:Josephine Decker
Stars:Grace Kaufman, Pico Alexander, Jacques Colimon
Rating:2/5
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
AI traffic lights to ease congestion at seven points to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Street
The seven points are:
Shakhbout bin Sultan Street
Dhafeer Street
Hadbat Al Ghubainah Street (outbound)
Salama bint Butti Street
Al Dhafra Street
Rabdan Street
Umm Yifina Street exit (inbound)
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
ICC T20 Rankings
1. India - 270 ranking points
2. England - 265 points
3. Pakistan - 261 points
4. South Africa - 253 points
5. Australia - 251 points
6. New Zealand - 250 points
7. West Indies - 240 points
8. Bangladesh - 233 points
9. Sri Lanka - 230 points
10. Afghanistan - 226 points
Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
- Flexible work arrangements
- Pension support
- Mental well-being assistance
- Insurance coverage for optical, dental, alternative medicine, cancer screening
- Financial well-being incentives
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Two Popes
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Pryce
Four out of five stars
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Switch%20Foods%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202022%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Edward%20Hamod%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Abu%20Dhabi%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Plant-based%20meat%20production%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2034%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%246.5%20million%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%20round%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Seed%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Based%20in%20US%20and%20across%20Middle%20East%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
The Indoor Cricket World Cup
When: September 16-23
Where: Insportz, Dubai
Indoor cricket World Cup:
Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23
UAE fixtures:
Men
Saturday, September 16 – 1.45pm, v New Zealand
Sunday, September 17 – 10.30am, v Australia; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Monday, September 18 – 2pm, v England; 7.15pm, v India
Tuesday, September 19 – 12.15pm, v Singapore; 5.30pm, v Sri Lanka
Thursday, September 21 – 2pm v Malaysia
Friday, September 22 – 3.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 3pm, grand final
Women
Saturday, September 16 – 5.15pm, v Australia
Sunday, September 17 – 2pm, v South Africa; 7.15pm, v New Zealand
Monday, September 18 – 5.30pm, v England
Tuesday, September 19 – 10.30am, v New Zealand; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Thursday, September 21 – 12.15pm, v Australia
Friday, September 22 – 1.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 1pm, grand final
