Kate Livingstone: Dab-bling in the latest craze

Don't things move fast these days?

I swear everytime I see my grandchildren, there’s a new fad.

Just a mere two weeks ago, I heard a term for the first time, and since then I have heard it approximately 10,000 times.

The term? Fidget-spinner.

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“Gran, can you get me a fidget spinner,” said Jack during one of my Friday babysitting sessions.

“What’s that, sweetheart?”

“It’s a toy and everyone in my class has one in, and you can get different colours, and some glow in the dark, and you spin it and it’s really cool and it actually can calm down your stress.”

Right.

“Where do you get them?” I said.

“Don’t know, you should ask Ciaran’s gran, because Ciaran has two.”

Ciaran’s gran is my pal, my go-to person if I have a child-related question.

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She’s listed in my phone as Ciaran’s gran, as I have no clue what her real name is but I’m pretty sure I’m listed in her’s as Jack’s gran.

You lose all your identity when kids are involved and become someone’s mum, dad, gran, cook or taxi driver.

“I only heard about fidget spinners yesterday, Kate,” said Ciaran’s gran. (Sugar, she knows my name).

“You get them in the pound shops, although I think Ava’s gran found one in the Post Office.”

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So we wondered round the shops. Sold out in Home Bargains, sold out in the pound shop, and the woman in the Post Office just looked perplexed when we asked.

Jack started to cry.

“But everyone has one! I’m gonna be the only one who doesn’t and everyone will say, ‘there’s Jack and he doesn’t have a fidget spinner because his gran couldn’t find one’.”

Oh, the drama.

The next day I found a bunch of the things in one of the convenience shops in Grangemouth. I passed it onto Jack the next day, by which time my daughter had already located one.

The following Friday, I picked Jack up from school.

“Gran, can you do the dab?”

“The what?” I said, wondering where the £5.99 fidget spinner was.

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He proceeded to demonstrate a silly dance with his arms up round his head which is seemingly used when one is in a celebratory mood.

“No, I can’t do the dab? Where’s your fidget spinner?

“Em, at home, my teacher doesn’t like them in class.”

So on Friday just passed, I was prepared for anything - a new toy, a new craze. But no.

“Gran, do you practise mindfulness?”

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