Silly Bands

When we were in Tampa Bay over Spring Break, we were introduced to "Silly Bands" because Zachary and Zane were each wearing thousands of them. Polly wanted to know if our kids had any and I quickly assured her that we were much too smart and sophisticated to participate in such a silly little fad. Famous last words!

Wouldn't you know it, the craze has hit Rhode Island. Last Tuesday the boys convinced me to take them all to Cumberland Farms for an Icee (where $0.79 gets you so much sugar coated ice that you could kill a small animal) and then to Olympia Sports for Silly Bands. I'm a sucker for a 7 year old "please!?!?!?" so we went. It was Justin, Mark, Bayley, Leah and Annalise. They got their Icees and then we headed to Middleton for the real prize. I remember my Mom telling me about how she waited in line for hours for my Cabbage Patch Kid (Marilyn was her name) in the middle of a Colorado Winter. Luckily, this was not as painful but it is a day I'll always rememeber.

We went to Olympia Sports and everyone picked out the Silly Bands they wanted. Justin wanted to hold out for the "rarest of rare" (rainbow colored) bands and asked if we could check CVS. I said that we could; however, if CVS did not have the bands, I was not coming back to Olympia. I explained that he was gambling and that sometimes gambling works and sometimes it doesn't. "Yah Yah...let's go to CVS." Wouldn't you know it - they were completely sold out! He cried and whined and begged me to take him back to Olympia and it broke my heart! I wanted so badly to go buy him a pack but I decided that the life lesson was way too valuable to pass up. So, I broke his heart right back. I know, I'm a mean lady.

He cried for a little bit and then we talked about trading his friends for volume rather than "rareness" of the band. He was intrigued by this idea and he made his first trade in the car - one "rare" band he had for three "regular" bands. He was on his way! Eventually his wrist was covered with the ridiculous volume that everyone else's was.

You would not believe the "Silly Band Craze" that has hit. If a parent wants to go get more "Silly Bands" they have to wait until Tuesdays when shipments come in and there is an effective gossip train that informs the moms when a supply is found. The problem is that as soon as you get over there to pick up a pack, the supply is gone again because of the very effective teamwork and gossip circles currently in effect.

Luckily the evil things have been outlawed in the schools and the next new thing is going to have to roll in. I'm happy that we've come to the end of this particular trend but I've really enjoyed watching the kids deal with them. You can try to teach them about money, toys, and value all day long but there's no faking it when they don't really care. These "Silly Bands" teach them some important skills about negotiating, protecting, purchasing, and (most important) keeping track of something that means a lot to them. In fact, I love the things because I could get either kid to do many things they don't usually agree to (examples: "please take the trash out" or "please go clean up the shoe rack in the entryway") simply by promising them one of the very rare (very uncomfortable) silly bands I had on one of my wrists.

I wonder what will be next...