Do you have Silly Bandz?

Are your kids crazy for the Silly Bandz? Or are their constant requests for the Silly Bandz making you crazy?

Posted 5:25 p.m. Apr 26, 2010 — Updated 6:06 p.m. Apr 26, 2010

Sarah Lindenfeld Hall

I have heard from more than one mom in the last few days about Silly Bandz, the rubber bands that apparently all kids must have right this very minute.

For the uninitiated, Silly Bandz are basically rubber bands in different shapes. About a month ago, Katherine Hodges of Tookie's Toys told me the craze would hit the Triangle. She's carried them since October, but about a week ago they started flying out the door. The 120 packs she got on Friday were gone in two hours.

Once school got out, between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. that day, customers were packed into her store in Cameron Village like she was giving things away, she told me. The packs of 24 sell for $4.99.

"It has literally exploded," said Hodges, who has had as many as 50 people on a list waiting to buy them. (If you're looking, she just got in 100 packs).

Kids wear the bands around their wrists and line them up like those jelly bracelets you might remember from your own childhood. They collect and trade them.

Middle schoolers seem to be the ones who first got excited about them, Hodges said. But she's seeing grade-schoolers to college kids who can't get enough. Hodges said she's even heard of a few local elementary schools who have banned them, which according to the New York Times makes kids even more crazy for them.

Hodges says she has more than 1,000 packs on order and expects to get shipments in every day this week.

Are your kids crazy for Silly Bandz? Have you given in? Where are you finding them in the Triangle? Has your child's school banned them? Is the desire for Silly Bandz making you crazy?

Suggest A Correction