I'm not sure it was, at least growing up country-side, it usually meant "getting up to no good" one way or another, because there is literally nothing else to do, eventually you've done all the "normal" stuff. Going to scare/play with the cows, find an axe and cut some trees down, throw branches at the neighbor kid without them seeing you, build snow-walls to fuck the cars, among other things were common activities, and I don't think a single adult appreciated any of us doing these things.

Eventually the computer appeared though, which did well in keeping us more inside, at least in the non-summer.