Blooming Loomers

Like every mom of an elementary schooler these days, I have recently been introduced to the rainbow loom.  For those of you not yet familiar with the rainbow loom (how can it be so?), it is a little plastic loom and a whole lota little colorful elastic bands (that, as an aside, slowly and silently take over one's home.  I kid you not - I find these tiny devils in the oddest and most irritating places.).  For some reason that I'm sure has left other toy and tchotchke inventors scratching their heads, whoever invented the rainbow loom has struck gold.  We were first introduced to the rainbow loom by older cousins at the lake this summer, arms draped with elastic bracelets and toting the magical elastic band storage box, filled to the brim with every color imaginable.  The first time that box was opened in front of my boys, it was literally as if a glowing treasure chest filled with gold had been opened.  And there was no going back.  Since then, we have seen rainbow loomers everywhere - on the soccer field, at the beach, in the grocery store.  And with each exposure, the boys' (particularly Ethan's) addiction has grown.  I knew it was all over when Ethan came home from school one day and informed me that all the kids were "finger looming" on the bus.  Because everyone else was doing it, I resisted buying Ethan any rubber bands for a long time.  But soon enough, his allowance caught up with me, and we are now the proud owners of a rainbow loom, an elastic storage box (thank the lord), and many colors of elastic bands (although, as Ethan would attest, not nearly enough).

And so this is our family's first introduction to the world of fads.  I know that young grade schoolers are particularly amenable to fads - I still remember the pull of the Cabbage Patch Kid when I was in second grade - how badly I wanted one, without really knowing why.  Unlike Cabbage Patch Kids, rainbow looming supplies are cheap.  Kids can actually afford them with their own money.  They are also in ample supply - even oversupply I might say, based on the multitude of elastic bands riddling store checkout displays.  No parents are waiting in line to get their hands on the latest pack of elastics.  And besides being cheap and easy, the rainbow loom hobby is, I believe, a great one for kids - particularly boys.  It is centering, calming, great for fine motor skills, creative, analytical.  So all in all, I am a big fan of this latest fad.

That being said, I would be lying if I said there weren't any tears shed in our house over the rainbow loom.  Luckily, very few of them have been mine, but some of these loom patterns?  They are seriously complicated!  And frustrating!  And when your son comes home from school saying that everyone at school is doing the starburst pattern and that he MUST MAKE A STARBURST BRACELET THIS INSTANT, rainbow looming can get intense.

What we are really witnessing here is the stronger and steadier influence of the peers.  Adam likes rainbow looming now and again, but Ethan...Ethan is OBSESSED with this new hobby, simply because it's what everyone else is doing.  And he has now reached the age where he really and truly cares a whole lot about what everyone else is doing.  First, the goal was to create as many bracelets and necklaces as he could - he'd come home from school every day and loom for hours, and then proudly display his new creations at the bus stop the next morning.  But this morning, I came downstairs to him unraveling a bunch of the bracelets he'd made and putting the elastics back into his new storage case.  I asked him what he was doing and he said "we need more bands in here Mommy - everyone else's box is full of bands."

And so it begins.  I'm not sure I'm ready for these changing tides.  Heck, I I'm not even ready for the starburst pattern.