Overstimulated and Underestimated

Two words I hate and I hear them everywhere from almost every child's mouth and yes mine says it too, "I'm bored." When I hear a kid say this I really want to stand them in a corner for an hour but I don't. It literally drives me crazy to hear this. Today in a world of visual entertainment such as: Movies, TV, video games, not to mention computers and the Internet we still have children all over crying those two maddening words. What happened to going outside to play, drawing, reading a book, and forget using the imagination. Have we held our kids hands for so long that they feel we should constantly entertain them? Today we have birthday parties that seem more like a 3 ring circus. I remember my childhood birthday parties consisting of a cake and a sprinkler (sugar the kids up then let them wear themselves out). I don't remember once uttering the words "I'm bored" during these types of parties. Yet I can't count how many times I have had kids tell me they were bored when presented with so much more. Has our generation forgotten our childhood when our parents instructed us to "just go play." We figured games out for ourselves without constant assistance from the adults around and we seem to have turned out alright. Why do we seem to be underestimating our children and their capabilities?