The newest banned Item

Damn, it's amazing how fast this stuff spreads.

Facebook posting from a friend earlier today: "What is with silly bands anyway? I caved and bought two packages."

Me to sozlet about an hour ago: "What are silly bands?"

Sozlet: "They are SO AWESOME and they're like bracelets and hey Kay has one Kay come here <shows me a star-shaped bracelet> and they're so cool and can I have one???"

Then check in to A2K and see this.

Not banned yet, here anyway.

What IS the big deal about them?

And some of them glow in the dark .... and some are more rare animal shapes/more desireable ones, etc.... some kids have like 100 on their wrists.

Like all fads - think back to something we had a fad of before. But yeah these are cheap little collectable stuff.

just wondering, was there a ban on pet rocks?

"Effective immediately, all silly bracelets or whatever they may be called, are banned. They have become too much of a distraction for the students."

Quote above from the school - these things are so new - there isn't an official name for them.

Or does anyone even know what they are called?

I don't know how you could with all the rocks in the school yard.

"Silly bands" seems to be what they're called around here.

Here we go, with a "z", of course.

http://www.sillybandz.com/

How are they a distraction though, do you know?

We're already in teenagehood, so I officially don't know that they're banned -
probably in elementary schools only.

Those are feral rocks. Duh!

Seems to be a lot of teens in these pictures:

http://www.sillybandz.com/photoweek.php

I think I get it, they're like a combination of those color-coded rubber bracelets that caused a stir a while ago and beanie babies/ webkinz/ baseball cards (the element of getting the "rare" one).

OMG, everybody overreacts so much these days! Whatever is next? Just deal with it!

We dealt with this last fall. My boys went nuts over them. They are inexpensive and actually were quite effective in rewarding them for jobs well done. It's pretty much done here now. They were banned at some schools not at others. Kids like to trade them like Pokemon cards or Baseball Cards.

Because they use them to trade they wear many, many of them at the same time. They take them off, they shoot them across the room, they pop each other with them...let me count the ways they distract.

I just told the boys the first complaint I got from a teacher they were going in the garbage. I never heard a thing.

Maybe the animal charms are a bleed over from the cadmium plated charms promoted by Hannah Montana, and sold by Wal-Mart. It's a toxic heavy metal, but I didn't know it was a problem at normal temperatures.

Most of the plated fasteners on the market are cad plated, and it's a bad idea to weld such nuts and bolts into a project. I don't hesitate to handle the stuff.

Awesome - they got a baseball pack - great for my little sluggers.

I think it is more the kids trading - maybe some have like a ton on their wrists. They could be shooting them at each other - or just the basic - man where'd you get that one?

really, you can't compare those wild, unvaccinated rocks to the one's that have papers.

I went to Cat'lik grade and high school. Uniforms.

In grade school you were really uncool if you didn't have a navy blue wind breaker.
About that time smiley button came out and that was a must have.
Funny we all had to maintain that uniform feel. We chose to add the same blue jackets and the same yellow buttons.

Then, in high school, the only thing you had control over (as far as the girls) was what kind of vest you wore under your jacket.

oh, and your shoes.

wild times.

Ok, I hate to say, but does anyone know where you can pick them in the stores? I thought maybe these would be good for hubby to use coaching softball - he currently overloads the kids with candy and gum - I thought he could hand these out as a reward when working hard, being a good sport and stuff instead.

when i was in high school, girls were banned from wearing jeans, just a regular ordinary public high school.

Well I could see this at my school as they have a school dress code - they kids make up for it in the rarity of the silly braclet crap.

My seven and ten year olds are really into them. Very cheap, cute, can be used as rubber bands if you tire of them. Some teachers in our local elementary banned them as a distraction until after end of grade tests, then let the kids bring them.

ohmy sozobe, in the link you're posted - the second picture, the boy to the far right - doesn't he look like Mo?