The note came home yesterday, from the kindergarten teacher: "Please tell your child to keep their 'Silly Bandz' at home for the next two days. They are beginning to become quite a source of argument, distraction, etc. They will have the whole summer to enjoy them. Thanks."
I'm hardly surprised. Bug has been talking about them for several months, but it has only been the past two weeks or so that he has wanted to buy his own. Free bands from friends had been enough to satisfy him before.
"What are Silly Bandz?" you ask. I should pause here to explain. They are one of those things that make everyone say, "why didn't I invent this?" Basically, they are rubber bands. They come in different shapes (dinos, vehicles, sports) and different colors and the kids wear them on their wrists and trade them with each other. In other words, the definition of 'silly band' is "cheap plastic trendy item".
Except not cheap. Or perhaps, cheap to make but not cheap to purchase. A month ago I asked around a bit after I had not found any at Target, and discovered that one had to buy the bands at name brand toy stores. That was not going to happen, so I ignored the trend. Then I started to hear about knock-off brands available more easily. On Tuesday we drove past the store that supposedly carried them and I offered to go in and allow Bug to buy some... with his own money.
This is exactly what an allowance is for- to buy crap that your mom doesn't think you need. Pook has never spent his allowance on these sort of trends, preferring to accumulate money he can spend on huge, expensive Lego kits. But Bug didn't hesitate to fork out $3.20 for 12 rubber bands in the shape of vehicles. ("No one else has vehicles so they will all want to trade with me!") He was very excited to wear them on Wednesday for Awards Day and for his class party. He came home with five or six swaps and felt very successful and happy.
Since he also came home with the note asking that they not bring the bands back for the remainder of the school year (all two days) and since the only value in the bands was in the trading of the bands, a process that can only be accomplished with friends at school, this essentially ends Bug's Silly Band trend. He had one day. I'll ask in a few weeks and we'll see if he thinks this was a waste of his money.
These have become all the rage at AJ's school too. He came home yesterday with one shaped like a turtle that a friend of his had given him, but he's been talking about them for a week. One of my violin students showed me one she had shaped like a horse (she rides) a couple of weeks ago.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, because we were just talking about fads after they read Ramona Quimby, Age 8 in school. In that book, there is a fad at Ramona's school for bringing hard boiled eggs to school for lunch and cracking them on your head. Except that when Ramona's distracted mother packs her lunch, she gives her a raw egg instead. AJ's teacher asked parents to write about fads when they were kids (I wrote about Pet Rocks and mood rings). Sill Bandz are no dumber than Pet Rocks, but I still think mood rings are kind of cool.