My children used more Borax in the past month than I have in my lifetime.
They just cracked open their second gallon of glue of the summer. Yes, they sell glue in gallons.
We keep buying large bottles of contacts cleaning solution, even though no one in our house wears contacts.
If you’re not a parent of a tween, you’re probably wondering if my daughters dream of becoming the next Walter White and becoming drug kingpins.
If you are a parent of a tween, you’re nodding in understanding about this summer’s unexplainable trend for kids, making slime.
We have plastic bags full of the sticky, slimy stuff all over our house. I’ll admit I enjoyed playing with some of it for about three minutes. It’s interesting how they can make them of varying consistencies, from nearly a formable solid all the way to something that’s practically a liquid but still holds together.
It’s interesting to me, for a little bit. But somehow it entertains them for half an hour at a time as they make each new batch.
Half the fun, they tell me, is putting different colors of dye in it to make it look different. Depending on the additives, they can make it fluffy or glittery too. You can make edible slime too, although that thankfully involves cake frosting and powdered sugar instead of glue and Borax.
That’s not to say foods can’t be a part of the glue-based concoction. They tell me some people put Oreos, Cheetos, Fritos and candy in their slime. Their weirdest recipe so far included shaving cream.
There’s a part of me that rolls my eyes at all this and wants to cut off the supply of ingredients.
There’s also a part of me that’s constantly complaining all kids do nowadays is stare down at glowing screens and never use their creativity. They’re little zombies, moving from one video to another in search of enlightenment and happiness.
That’s why I’ll continue to support this hobby, no matter how crazy it seems to me. I carved out a corner of the garage for them to make it after their operation outgrew the kitchen table. We’ll continue to buy glue by the gallon, even if in the past I’d never used all the glue in a regular bottle before it dried out.
I’ll entertain their stories about how much slime they made that day, or what ingredients combination they tried and how it worked. In a world where Google is just a tap away, it’s nice to see them experiment and learn for themselves.
It’s not exactly the carefree way I remember spending summers, swimming in the local pool all day or playing ball in the backyard. Then again, if I’m truly honest with myself, I must have spent a lot of time staring at the glowing screens of my day, given my extensive knowledge about “Gilligan’s Island,” “Three’s Company” and “The Brady Bunch.”
My memories of slime come from the old Canadian TV show, “You Can’t Do That on Television.” Thankfully they’re not familiar with that show, which dumped green slime on people when they uttered the words, “I don’t know.”
I’d hate to have them see that now and come up with another use for all that slime they’re making.
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