Ah, the joys of parenthood; it can be the peak of happiness and the depths of frustration all at once. Enter the phase of middle school, where my eldest son has transformed into a creature clad in a solid-colored polo shirt, reeking of adolescent funk, and sporting a shiny new attitude. He now wakes up later, rolls his eyes more often, and has discovered a new obsession: bottle flipping.
If you’ve somehow managed to avoid the bottle flipping craze, congratulations! You must be living under a rock, and I’d like to join you there for some takeout and a drink. But unlike the fleeting nature of many trends, this one seems to be sticking around, and I’m starting to wonder how much longer I can endure it.
For the uninitiated, bottle flipping is where kids take a partially filled plastic bottle and flip it, aiming for it to land upright. But the real issue isn’t the flipping itself; it’s the relentless thud of those bottles hitting the ground in every room of the house. Just when I thought the sound of a recorder was unbearable, here comes the bottle flipping to steal the show.
Recently, we hosted a birthday sleepover for my son, thinking, “How bad can it be with just a few extra kids?” Oh, how naive I was! The moment those boys arrived, they began flipping bottles from the second floor of our open-concept home onto the tile below. I suggested they adjust the water levels to create a more harmonious rhythm, but alas, there was no symphony, only a cacophony reminiscent of an MRI machine.
Things took a turn for the worse when a bottle burst, leading to my least favorite chore: cleaning. After that, I banished them to the front yard, fully aware that I’d earned a spot on the neighbors’ bad side.
In a moment of desperation, I confided in a friend with older kids, who offered the classic, “At least it’s not ____” advice. You can fill in the blank with anything: drugs, bullying, or even clowns. She had a point; while bottle flipping may not be the worst thing in the world, it’s still (thump) a constant (thump) annoyance (thump) in my life right (thump) now. “Can you please stop flipping that bottle for just one second?!” (silence) Where was I again?
So yes, while bottle flipping isn’t the end of the world, it’s incredibly irritating, pointless, and feels like the most annoying case of hiccups. And really, who enjoys hiccups?
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Summary:
Bottle flipping has become an overwhelming trend among tweens, causing endless frustrations for parents. While it might not be the worst thing kids could be doing, the constant noise and chaos can test anyone’s patience.