Would You Like An Eskimo With Your Ice? | Life Love and Hiccups: Would You Like An Eskimo With Your Ice?
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Wednesday 26 March 2014

Would You Like An Eskimo With Your Ice?

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These little things you cannot hide from ... they are literally everywhere in our house! Caught in the rugs, on the driveway, in the toilet and between the cushions on the couches.

Judging by the amount of mum's arms I see adorned every day with these things, I don't believe they need much in the way of an introduction really. But for those who have been hiding under a rock or have kids who don't yet know about them - these money sucker things are designed by the devil and sold to innocent children as magical Unicorn poo... just kidding ... kinda...

They are rainbow looms and my kids like millions of others, are obsessed by them.

We have been through many an obsession over the years. Go-gos, bey blades, tech decks, trading cards, crazy bands, might beans. I could go on and on but I won't because it makes me weepy and emotional when I think about the amount of money I have been coerced into spending on this crap and how most of it now resides in the bottom of the playroom toy baskets or on a heap at the tip.

Thankfully though this fad seems to be funding itself courtesy of one small entrepreneurial child I have been blessed with.



Yep this is the child of mine, the one who takes uneaten food from the pantry and packages it up to sell to the neighbours and unsuspecting people walking down our street.

He is the one who takes my bottles of Soda & Lime that I buy to accompany my vodka, and sells it by the cup load to thirsty people who don't even know they are thirsty until they are convinced to hand over their dosh by a kid who knows his selling techniques better than he knows his alphabet.

This is the kid who sells a car wash for $20 bucks and you have to provide the water and the car soap and then cons the neighborhood kids into doing the work under the disguise of "fun".

You get the idea - this sweet child of mine could convince you that you need to buy an Eskimo to go with your ice.. or something as equally as confusing yet astoundingly convincing as that.

So his latest venture is flogging these bracelets he makes to the kids at his school.

He conned me into buying his first pack of bands for $3.99 and he worked out he can make 20 -30 bracelets out of each pack, depending on his design. He then on sells these bracelets to his school mates for $1.00 per bracelet or $1.50 for the sparkly or glow in the dark ones.

He doesn't care if the kids are only buying his designs to pull them apart for the bands... he's already moved on. He has made his money, has enough to reinvest in supplies and is now lining up at the canteen to feed his rice cup and icy pole addiction out of his own pocket.

I asked him if he felt guilty about the exorbitant mark up he puts on the bangles and his answer was "Nup". Simple as that - "Nup"

But upon further discussion about what exorbitant means, the risk of being undercut by a competitor and worst yet the potential of getting busted at school for using school time to run a business - he disappeared to work on a plan and I headed to the liquor cabinet for some special Mummy coping cordial.

The next day he came home from school and informed me he had a new business model. He now donates part of his daily profits to the Project Compassion jar at school. He proudly informed me that aside from being charitable and helping needy people, he also gets 2 reasons to smile (individual student rewards), 20 bonus points for his table in class to use on free time or to win snakes which makes him very popular with his class mates AND he still makes a healthy profit.

For The Win!

"It felt so good Mum" he said.

"What did?" I curiously asked.

"Giving back to the community" he replied before heading back to his room to stock-take and work on building his inventory.

Yep this kid will go far.

Are your kids into this rainbow loom craze?
What fads have you been conned into handing over money for recently?