Humor
Must try especially for its therapeutic benefits
Ever Played with Bubble Wrap?
If you have never spent time popping the bubbles in bubble wrap packaging, I have only one thing to say to you. You MUST try!!
Everyone must pop the bubbles in a sheet of bubble wrap once in their life.
It is addictive. It is fun. It is therapeutic. It is satisfying.
You don’t believe me? Look for ‘bubble wrap quotes’ and you will see how many people adore this simple activity.
We are all mature, until someone pulls out bubble wrap. Source — Unknown
1. Keeping High Energy Kids Occupied
No single activity can keep high energy kids occupied for long. But bubble wrap lasts a bit longer than most. I can vouch for it because I’ve seen friends using this technique.
- Hand out equal portions of bubble wrap sheets to each kid in the house.
- Tell them this is a competition for who can pop all the bubbles first.
- Stuff cotton in your ears.
- Enjoy the next 10 minutes (or whatever you get) of silence where the kids are not hankering for your attention. Bliss!
Note: Be sure you have handed out equal portions. Also, make sure that none of the bubbles have been previously popped. If you do not follow one of these instructions, you are on your own.
2. Therapy — Venting your Anger at Someone
Let us admit it! Throughout the day, we all go through various emotions. And sometimes, the emotion is to punch someone in the face. Naturally, this is not always possible, and we end up carrying frustration in our belly.
This is where the therapeutic benefit of bubble wrap kicks in.
Therapy is extremely expensive. Poppin bubble wrap is radically cheap.
– Jimmy Buffett
- Sit comfortably in your favorite spot on the couch.
- Find a nice, juicy, unpopped piece of bubble wrap.
- Imagine the face of the person you want to punch.
- Start popping the bubbles.
- Continue for a few minutes while imagining each bubble to be the person you want to punch.
Satisfaction guaranteed. You will feel much better at the end of this. Try it!
3. Amazing Bonding Material
Family lunches, gatherings, picnics, and such like are always touted as great ways to bond with family.
But have you tried the bubble wrap technique of bonding? It works wonders. Especially if both parties are ardent bubble wrap poppers.
Over the years, I have bonded well with my mother-in-law (MIL) over bubble wrap. When any device or anything packed in bubble wrap comes home, I always save a sheet for the MIL.
Sometimes I just give her her share for her to pop at leisure. At other times, we sit down together for a good old session of bubble wrap popping. Such sessions are fun. While we are busy popping the bubbles, she narrates some old stories from her childhood. Or if I am lucky, from my husband’s childhood. Much ammunition for ragging him later…!
I can only hope that she is not using this time as therapy and imagining the bubbles to be me 🙂
So if you want to bond with someone, determine their bubble wrap popping index, and use this as an opportunity to gel well.
4. Organize Friendly Fights and Treasure Hunts
I think we are a family of bubble wrap lovers. My dear departed mom and my kid are also equally fanatic about this activity.
Sometimes in the past, I have squirreled away juicy pieces of bubble wrap and driven my mom and kid into a tizzy because they couldn’t find their share of bubble wrap.
Mom and kid would hunt all over the house, and keep pleading with me to hand over their share.
The drama that ensued was a treat. I managed to get so much fun out of bubble wrap without popping a single bubble. That’s double the value for something I never paid for in the first place.
If one of the pieces was found, there would be great fights between the two with regard to who owned that piece. Hilarious times!
5. Party Games — The Bubble Wrap Dance
Bubble wrap is made for parties. If you are having several guests over and have to organize games, buy yourself sheets of bubble wrap with those fat bubbles.
Organize the great bubble wrap dance.
- Give each couple a sheet of bubble wrap.
- Tell them they have to stomp the bubbles out.
- Add excitement by making them fold the sheet each time to bring them closer.
- The team that stomps them all out first, wins. Or any other rule you want to make up!
There is laughter, noise, excitement. Your party is already a super success.
6. A Handy Relaxation Technique
If you are stressed out or anxious, popping these delicate bubbles is a sure-fire way to relax. Better to pop these bubbles than popping some pills, eh?
Recently, my hubby and I had gone over to a cousin’s place to help them move houses. The movers and packers dumped all the stuff and rushed off. We had to help with all the unpacking and organizing.
After a while, all of us were super tired and needed a break. Suddenly, to our great pleasure, we discovered that the packers had left behind mounds of bubble wrap from some of the bigger items such as the TV and refrigerator.
For the next 15–20 minutes, most of us were busy popping bubbles, laughing, snatching pieces from each other, and generally having a good time. It was very very relaxing after the back-breaking work.
Warning: Not everyone is a fan of popping bubbles. Worse still, they cannot handle the constant ‘put put put’ sound that the popping creates. Beware of such people. They can truly burst your bubble when you are having fun.
When all of us were having fun and relaxing, a couple of members of the family were out buying some essentials. When they came back and found us all sprawled on the floor doing ‘useless’ work, they threw a fit. Personally, I thought they were just jealous that we were having fun and they missed the chance.
7. Great Team Activity at the Work Place
When teams have been working long and hard, or if you find that your teams are not getting along too well, use the corporate team budget to order bubble wrap. Yup, it will be difficult to explain to your finance team, but it will be worth it.
Alternatively, go forage in the IT department. Since they keep ordering equipment, they are bound to inherit a lot of bubble wrap.
I had found a huge loot of bubble wrap once and proceeded to hand out pieces to my small team. During our coffee break, we were all chatting and popping away at our sheets. The constant ‘put put put’ irritated a few others sitting close by. But we dismissed it as jealousy. Their team didn’t have access to bubble wrap sheets. Ha ha ha!
However, things got a bit complicated. We thought we were engaged in a highly innocent activity. However, to the casual passerby, the sound was very similar to a short circuit apparently. Someone panicked and complained to the electrical maintenance team. Someone from the maintenance team came running to our bay to investigate. Obviously, nothing was frying.
But the maintenance team was not amused. They warned us not to play such games in the office and confiscated all our bubble wrap. Our neighbors had smug grins on their faces.
You may not face such a situation. So you should still go ahead and try this as a team activity.
A World Without Bubble Wrap
Someone recently sent out a tweet by Adrian Assman stating that bubble wrap was no longer going to be manufactured. It was like reading a tragic piece of news.
The news item said that ‘New Bubble Wrap Will No Longer Pop When You Squeeze It’.
This was followed by a comment from Elon Musk saying ‘Clearly a sign of the apocalypse’.
All this made me very nervous and I tried to find the actual news article. It was from 2015. And we still have plenty of poppable bubble wrap lying around.
All is not lost, yet!
And the next time you order something, make sure you save the bubble wrap!!
Anu Anniah Writes 