Dear Grandparenting:
When my grandchildren last visited, they all brought along this gadget they can spin on their fingers, which is all it does or will ever do. This thingamajig spins around and around and around if you flick it with your finger to start the thing turning. It’s a one-trick pony and my grandchildren are obsessed.
Several years ago I put my foot down about cellphones if my older grandchildren are visiting. I concluded there is no competing with those phones so the cellphones stay in their pocket or else.
My younger grandchildren know better than to whip out a phone when I’m talking or I’m entertaining other guests. These spinners are equally anti-social.
Here’s how you and your friends can be made to feel like a complete idiot. First, invite your grandkids over. Then let them start playing with their spinners. Then see if you can have a decent conversation with your grandkids. You feel like you’re talking to yourself. I deserve much better.
Emily Washburn, Boston
Dear Emily:
We hear you, loud and clear. You won’t be the last grandparent struggling to come to grips with the fidget spinner, a simple and inexpensive palm-sized device that grandchildren go gaga over, consisting of an sealed central ball-bearing pad with three protruding arms or wings that rotate endlessly. That’s pretty much it.
Fidget spinners are promoted as a coping mechanism for the stress and anxiety of modern life. Some claim the gizmo is beneficial for youth with attention deficit disorders.
Although spinners may or may not deliver on those promises, it’s easy to see the attraction, especially for kids. The spinners are noiseless, harmless and easily concealed behind one’s back or under the table, putting one over on the adults. More schools are prohibiting spinners, rightfully figuring kids might spin the day away.
Is there no escape from the plague of fidget spinners? Assuming these spinners follow the trajectory of other popular crazes like Pokemon Go and Flappy Bird, their time will soon have come and gone.
Grand remark of the week
Rory Davis, of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, recalls the time his granddaughter Liz gave her tired father a pep talk before a family wedding. Chosen to be a flower girl, 5-year-old Liz rushed up to greet her father outside the church. “Daddy! You don’t understand weddings! At all! This is so exciting! I better go and get ready to spring into action. Bye.”
Dee and Tom, married more than 50 years, have eight grandchildren. Together with Key, they welcome questions, suggestions and Grand Remarks of the Week. Send to P.O. Box 27454, Towson, MD, 21285. Call 410-963-4426.
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