Hello,
Threading beads
To waste one's time (on trivialities, on nonsense)
Yes, today, Barbie® dolls, Lego® and video games are among children's favorite pastimes, but in the past, and long before the advent of scoubidous, stringing beads to make necklaces, bracelets or various trinkets was a very popular activity.
From a man’s point of view, it was a low-status, frivolous activity, whose only merit was keeping the kids busy, as well as the women, who could also spend a great deal of time on this pastime. This explains the figurative meaning indicated.
This expression was often used in a form such as “we are not here to string beads.”
It appears in the sixteenth century in Rabelais's Gargantua. Although he merely mentions the activity itself, he already does so with a certain disdain.
(…) but let us hide ourselves by the corner of the fireplace; and there let us spend our lives and our time with the ladies in stringing pearls, or in spinning like Sardanapalus.
François Rabelais - Gargantua - 1534
"I'm not going to have you believe that Bertrand [Delanoë] is a model of kindness," confesses Francis Chouat, vice-president of the Essonne departmental council. "Those to whom he entrusts responsibilities will not be there to string pearls!"
Le Nouvel Observateur - Article dated September 25, 2008
The expression "threading beads" is also sometimes used for those who pray by sliding the beads of a rosary between their fingers.
Happy reading
Marylena