I dread trips to the mall with the kids. For many reasons. One that might not be at the top of your list, but weighs heavily on my mind is the the high likelihood of balloons on offer. Heck even the butcher hands out balloons to the kids. Balloons all around and I am suddenly walking through the mall with double the amount of unruly things to manage. Now balloons may be good fun, but my kids get so attached to their existence that it is like the passing of a beloved pet when they pop. I banned them in theory, but not in practice as they have somehow made their way back into our house appearing as stowaways in birthday party goodie bags. Some parents worry about strangers offering their kids candy and me…well, I fear the balloon pushers.
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m right there with you, Rachel. Our local grocery gives them out to the kids and I’ve started saying “no”. LOL. For me, its more about the fact that she’s excited for the balloon for about the time it takes to get to the car, and then the balloon is forgotten. It slowly roams the house until the next morning when it sadly finds a corner and then I have to go and collect them and put them in the trash. Seems like such a waste!
Um, ok .. I am the one wondering why we never get balloons .. I see random kids with balloons and i’m like ‘who gave them that balloon, where did they get that balloon, ARE WE NOT BALLOON WORTHY?”
So i’ve never had your problem. Not once. We are the sad balloonless family
HAHAHAHAHA. Now Lea, I know we must go to the same shopping center, do you just have a look that say “Don’t even TRY to give my kid that balloon”?????
ha!! someone needs to give that family some balloons!
they can have all my kid’s balloons. I can’t stand the things!
I’m the same way! It’s WW3 when it’s time for me to pop the balloon.
You can buy balloons made from liquid gums in tubes.
LOL..This is my youngest child, six kids and alas we have a balloon junkie. What seemed like a cute little obsession is now the bane of my existence. A popped balloon causes tears and trauma that can last for hours. I swear, we need to have a damn funeral every time a balloon goes to that place in the sky. I must admit, we have had balloons last for months. I am guilty of waiting until said child is at preschool and then taking a sharp kitchen knife and cutting balloon at the knot and I LIKE it.. I feel no guilt. God help anyone that brings a little air filled balloon into my house!!!
LOL, and I tought I was the only one fearing those
Thanks for sharing!
I hate when I forget the balloons are in the kids room at night. So I wake up seeing this “floating head” in the dark & it scares the heck outta me!
my husband hates balloons because he hates anything that might make a loud noise unsuspectingly at any time. i just hate them floating and laying around the house for days, and the crying when they pop. and i think i told you once that i’ve hammered it home to my kids that “they don’t last forever” and “we’ll get another one soon” and “they’ve lost air” and we have a little popping ceremony where i tell the kids it’s time for them to say good-bye and i cut a tiny slit in the neck of the balloon and squeeze the air out into their faces and then they get to each put their deflated balloons in the garbage and say “good-bye balloons, thanks for being such good balloons”. and that is that! now it’s only painful when one of them accidentally pops a balloon before i tell them it’s time to say good-bye hahaha.
Imagine eight balloons at once, it is not even funny the amount of chaos that can cause!!! I am the mother that sneaks into their room at night and lets the air out… I am the mother who says: “How sad” at breakfast time and then tosses them into the garbage, because they are a choking hazard!!! I confess I am so that mother!!!
I did not even mention the worst part in my opinion…when one of the three balloons pop and then I think “Now I have to pop the other two to stop the fighting.”
Ha Ha, so funny Sesame. This resonates strongly with me – just this past weekend I had to tell my kids, “sorry, no balloons this time” while we were at a street festival. We were biking home and I could just imagine the balloon floating off into the clouds and the other child crying and laying blame somehow on the other etc. etc. I also hate the balloons cluttering up my house for weeks on end when I finally pop the shrivelled up balloon myself because I’m tired of looking at droopy balloons…. I’m glad I’m not the only balloon hater.
I have a balloon phobia!! Can’t stand the things, so the sight of ‘free’ balloons anywhere sends me into a panic!!My poor kids just don’t get it, but they are as good as banned in this house
HA HA HA! This is too funny…and true…
AAAAAAAARGH! The balloons! Yes! The non-inflated ones are bad enough because then you have to stop whatever you are doing and inflate them right there and then otherwise there will be crying. And then they are inflated, but stringless. So all it takes is the slightest breeze and wheeeeeeeee! They’re off. And so are you, of course… Wheeeee! Into the road (if only to stop your child from getting there first), across the park, run run run. Joy. But oh, that is nothing compared to the freakin’ helium balloons that, indeed, become beloved pets. And they too want to escape and often do. You can tie them to wrists or strollers or handbags, but they’ll still escape. Because a little hand will decide they want to play with them or that the knot is too tight. But at least if they escape, the pain is quickly over. If they make it home, I have to watch them slowly empty of helium and sink to the floor, where they will be kept for weeks and then forgotten such that the under-bed (and under-sofa) areas of our house are now like balloon graveyards. Sad, shrivelled, empty balloon graveyards. Bah! Balloons.
Wow, balloons have never bothered me! LOL! My parents let us kids get balloons, when we were little kids and would tie the string around our wrists, so they wouldn’t get lost. I never said no to balloons with my 2 daughters.
Hi Everybody, I absolutely hate Balloons. I can´t stand the sound if my kids rub them on the floor or their clothes, i hate it when i´m working in the kitchen and every minute a balloon is landing on the table. If my kids have balloons at home, every evening i´m going upstairs to their rooms and talk to them, the balloons have to go, because they know, every balloon has to go before sleeping. Mostly i take a small pencil or a pin that works best. Call me a balloon murderer, but i have to do it