#PositiveVibes - Bandwagon Jumping

By John R. Nocero and Nicole M. Palmer

The VIBE: Deliberately choose the bandwagon you jump on.

John: According to https://www.toys4minds.com/, the hottest toy of this upcoming Christmas is the Grumblie. Looking at the picture above, it reminds me of Gizmo from the 1984 movie Gremlins. The more you poke and mess around with the Grumblie, the angrier they get. Your goal as a Grumblie owner is to get them into meltdown mode. I always enjoy seeing what the hot toy is every Christmas. I remember my sister begging for a Cabbage Patch Kid one Christmas. Everyone at school had gotten one and she wanted one. I don't know if my mom dropped the stellar “Well, if everyone at school jumped off a bridge, would you?” line but she may have thought it. Wonder how many kids have already started begging their parents for Grumblies. Their reasoning is like my sister's - If everyone has something, it must be right. This is not always true. Deliberately choose the bandwagon you jump on.

Nicole: I’ve never heard of the Grumblie, so I followed the link that John provided above. I’m reading the paragraph that describes the toy, and the goal is to get them into meltdown mode. Scratching my head on this one… Does anyone else have a problem with this? What are we teaching our kids? Bolt shoots out electric bursts… Tremor shakes up its surroundings… This makes me so sad that we are encouraging bullying. Children already have a tough time at school dealing with bullying. From what I recall with the Gremlins, I thought they were harmless. According to Wikipedia, “The owner, Mr. Wing, refuses to sell the creature to Randall. However, his grandson secretly sells the mogwai to Randall, warning him to remember three important rules that must never be broken – do not expose the mogwai to bright lights or sunlight which will kill it, do not let it get wet, and never feed it after midnight.” In the 80’s we taught to follow the rules. 2018 we are promoting violence. What has this world come to? I can’t jump on the bandwagon with this one. I will convince the kids to stick to my 80’s roots and we will follow the rules and not jump on the bandwagon.

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