Friday, July 22, 2011

Family Time: fads

My children seem to avoid fads during the school year. Perhaps they are too busy with secular school, Hebrew school, TKD and playdates, not to mention precious computer games in lieu of television. Summertime brings with it the random fads of children.

image credit
This summer? This summer it is Gogos. Or, to be precise, Gogo's Crazy Beans. These rather adorable little guys were first introduced to me when I took Ted to Temple Emmanuel, where the bus would take the kids up to Shwayder camp.

His buddy Jack had a large bag of these gogos and they boys gathered around a large Star-of-David table and began battling their guys in a game that looked a lot like bowling, from six different angles. I sent Ted a little pack in his care package and we received an hysterical letter a few days later with the words: Send more gogos. 

Sam and Mae are not immune to the fad either. Neither of them had heard of them til I sought them out for Ted. They each bought a $2 pack with their allowance and, lo and behold, a few days later the neighbor boys had them.

Now it is all the rage in my house. Last summer it was SillyBandz. Remember Puffles? Now Gogo's Crazy Beans. Whatever next?

I am reading a very sobering book titled The Price of Privilege by Madeline Levine. Amidst the subjects of material advantage and parental pressure, she speaks briefly about fads and how important they are to kids. They are an acceptable part of childhood, and while we shouldn't drop a fortune on plastic toys that are sure to vanish in a few months, it is OK to let our children enjoy the fad too, within reason.

My kids purchase gogos (like SillyBandz last year) with their allowance. Allowance can be an entire post on its own, but my kids each get $1 per grade of school + $1. So Sam gets $3 per week, for example. At $2 for three gogos, I think I'll be seeing lots of chores being completed in the next few weeks!

Are your children aware of fads, or do they stumble into them accidentally? How do you deal with these frivolous, yet harmless, childhood "must - haves"?

No comments: