To want to put out a public service announcement - DO NOT BUY MY KIDS SCIENCE / SLIME KITS

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

God that felt good to shout.

Kids dying to play with her goop and gloop science kit she got last week. Eventually find a bit of time to sit with her and give it a go.

Step One :- mix A solution with B solution, shake for 20 mins then leave to settle for 24 hours

Packs up kit and puts it away.

I fucking hate these kits. Same with the slime making and the bath bomb making. They never work, leave extra mess, and dd just gets annoyed with the fact that the end product isn't anywhere as good as the equivalent that can be bought from the shop for a quid.

So....

If you have a kid you know who loves slime or goop or bath bombs- just buy them slime or goop or bath bombs. Step away from the kits!!!

I should have added Step One outlined above is what you need to do before you can make any of the six experiments in the instructions. It's an essential step.

Or buy the ingredients to make slime, without buying the kit. Loads of fun and much better (and cheaper) than the pots of slime that you can buy.

Bought Grandson one last year, the Slime Factory. What a disappointment; utter rubbish that didn't set properly or set like concrete.

Never again.

I remember these types of gifts and the disappointment of them from my own childhood.

Toys that were tiny compared to the advert

How absolutely shit Mr Frosty actually was when one of my friends managed to get one.

My Spirograph attempts looking nothing like the box

Etc etc

YANBU

My 8yo DD absolutely loves making slime or doing any art/craft stuff. We also made the mistake last year of buying the slime factory & it was a total waste of money and very disappointing! This year we have made her up a box that has a couple of 5ltr bottles of glue, shaving foam, activator and then lots of bits & pieces to add like glitter etc. I know she will love it 😍

Oh YANBU of course - but this has been the case for all these types of kits since time began (looking at you Mr Frosty, chocolate lolly making kit, candle making kit) - never as fun as the adverts make out!

Bit late this?

Ahhh for the days you’d dream of a mr frosty and a magic garden. And then you’d get it and it would be shit.
But, it didn’t matter
But yes op I agree. 100%

Mine have always hated slime. They don't see the point of it... oh yeah slime, errr...and that's it!

I've got my eldest the galt rainbow lab as I've checked reviews etc and this one does seem to have all included & looks quite fun .

How absolutely shit Mr Frosty actually was when one of my friends managed to get one.

YY to that! I begged for one for years and when I finally got one it was a pile of crap! Basically, a small child had to use a flimsy plastic handle to spin a cheese grater that was supposed to somehow grate ice.

Ha ha ha Mr Frosty the actual legend of it.

Even worse was the science kit that worked perfectly.
Combine that with a dipshit DP who decided it was a good idea to do the volcano in the living room

I still have a pink stain on my ceiling

I legit don't know of anyone who was a child in the 80s who didn't want a Mr Frosty. My cousin who is in his 40s a couple of Christmasses ago, said how devastated he was never to get one.

The advertisers behind that campaign did a right number on an entire generation.

Reality :

Tiny, Flimsy, Couldn't be achieved by a child, Adult Strength would break it. Actual Slush Produced : Slim to None, Shit.

It was a 1 star product, with a 5 star myth among children 😂

I feel bad now for buying a bath bomb making set for a friend's daughter, they're really into crafts and I didn't realise they were rubbish, I hope you're not my friend irl.....

@Straycatstrut
My dd got that last year. She's had lots of fun with it. Lots of rainbowy stuff. :)

She also got a smelly science kit, all of it involved letting eggs go bad first. So we gave up.

I've bought the Elmer's stuff this year - two ingredients and it works. Yay!

You don't even get the syrup included in Mr Frosty now, you have to use frigging squash or fruit juice.

We need scientists. These kits encourage kids to enjoy science.

OP. Given your user name YABU as you should be doing whatever to encourage your DC into STEM activities.

Otherwise YANBU.

Straycatstrut ds got the Galt Rainbow lab and loved it. “Goggles and pipettes” was his favourite bit apparently! The experiments are quite quick and quite interesting. May be a good idea to have a white (real) flower knocking about for one of the experiments, but everything else is in the kit iirc 😊

The Galt magentic lab one is awesome though! hours of fun :)

We need scientists. These kits encourage kids to enjoy science

They absoloutley do not encourage. I'd go so far as to say they discourage.

Thankfully dds ppe cover teacher is a scientist so they do weekly simple/effective/rewarding experiments that don't involve trying to pipette pva or having to make up solutions 24 hours in advance.

We bought DSS a crystal making set one year. One step involved waiting a week and another two steps needed 48 hours. DSS is only here EOW so it took us (me) about 6 weeks to make the damn things. To be fair it did actually work in the end.

My dds have been bought bath bomb, perfume and bath bomb kits 😵

Someone got ds a chemistry kit. He got his hands on it and dyed a patch of his bedroom floor blue.

The interesting thing was - it really shouldn’t have made blue dye... he is planning to do chemistry at A level...

I’m still hoping for a Mr Frosty for Christmas. I’ve been waiting for over thirty years. I don’t care that it’s shit - I bloody want one!