Bernard O'Shea: Why slime-making could be precisely the stress reliever you are looking for

An hour with the gooey stuff? It's a prescription for happiness. Like baking without the hassle. 

Slime is way more than 'just a toy.' Honest.

Some items my kids are obsessed with have, in one way or another, been challenging for me to live with as an adult.

For example, yoghurts. Albeit they have supplied them with a quick, easy, and nutritious snack, they have also destroyed several couches, and permanently damaged all my clothes. I've tried giving it to them in all its milky variants; tubes, frozen on sticks, and in bottles, but it still manages to smash into the TV screen. As for milk? I still have to drive my car with the windows down nearly a year after our three-year-old squirted his beaker onto the carpet.

Bananas have also been an excellent go-to snack. But for some reason, once a month, one of them is kidnapped and taken hostage in a dark corner of the house that I didn't even think existed. Our kitchen had an odd, acidic, musty smell for months during the lockdown. I constantly bemoaned it to the bemusement of my wife. She hasn't the same acute sense of smell as I have. This is apparent when it comes to microwaving her favourite dish, "mac and cheese", and I literally have to leave the house. But eventually, I found a nearly-faded-to-dust banana stuck between the recesses of two drawers in a kitchen cabinet. I don't know how they got in there, but they did, and it was revolting.

They are also obsessed with kidnapping my phone. The thrill of squealing "I've got Daddy's phone" is akin to a war cry for them. They love to watch their programs on it instead of on the telly. There is a certain edginess to it for them, I guess. That is, of course, until I leave the house to go to work and realise I don't have my phone an hour later.

Then there are the bubbles. Even as they all get a little bit older, they still get a good hour's fun playing with a bubble machine or a bucket filled with washing-up liquid. However, this innocent pastime has nearly maimed me on several occasions. Balance was never my forte, and when my big awkward legs and two left feet hit slippery terra firma like a premiership striker in the box, I go down like a tonne of bricks.

Then there's the ultimate ruler that tops all their obsessions — chocolate spread. We all know the brand I'm referring to here. It rhymes with a bone I've dislocated three times. My patella. I sometimes worry about their obsession with it. If a stranger came to the door and offered them a jar of it in exchange for Daddy, I'm pretty sure they would choose the nutty cocoa spread. I have enough faith in them to hope that Mammy would be safe.

But we have recently found a shared obsession in the form of slime. Several major social media trends have infiltrated our lives over the last decade, from taking pictures of our dinners to commenting on world events from the back of the 59A Bus to throwing buckets of ice water over our heads. However, one that has been reinvented is slime.

Slime is a very appealing visual mess, and its ingredients are simple to make

According to Dope Slime's blog, slime was first invented by the toymaker, Mattel in the 1970s.

"This gooey substance was green and, by design, looked as disgusting as possible — the storage container it came with was even a trash can. Enough kids loved it that the slime jumped off the shelves in droves, and many people have fond memories of this particular slime."

The fact that there is even a dedicated website called dopeslimes.com indicates how popular the slime world has become — but why? The answer is straightforward — social media.

It is a very appealing visual mess, and its ingredients are simple to make. There are hundreds of different types of recipes. Still, most of them contain craft glue, bicarbonate of soda, detergent, shaving foam, or contact lens solution (not in that order or quantity). Then you can add food colouring and sometimes the dreaded glitter. (that will end up on every stitch of clothing you own)

But for me, I sneakily insert slime-making under the parental tab of "activities I do with the kids." The truth is I love making it for myself. It's similar to when the waiting staff in a restaurant bring your kids down colouring pencils or crayons but you get more fun out of it than they do.

It's also one of those things that you see on Instagram. I can do it myself, and it's one of the most therapeutic things I've done with baking soda and shaving foam since my student rag weeks. The kids get a kick out of making slime and throwing it at each other, but for an adult, it's like baking without all the hassle of, well…baking.

When you are kneading and squelching the sloppy random ingredients together, it feels like there are surges of stress popping out from your fingertips. It's like watching the tiny sprays of oil explode out of the skin of an orange when you peel it. It's not just me that has an adult love for the stuff either.

In an article entitled How An Unlikely Instagram Trend Is Bringing Together Gen Z, Boomers, & Everyone In Between, author Michelle Santiago Cortés talks about having anxiety about attending the opening of a slime museum in New York in 2019. Yes! A slime museum! Thinking it would be full of trendy Gen Z types, she found herself surrounded by kids. However, like me, she loves the stuff and believes that slime is "more than just a toy" or an Instagram trend. 

"It has the potential to be a fixture in modern offices and bedside tables everywhere. But it has a long way to go," she says. 

So don't be surprised if your next work team bonding session (pardon the gluey pun) is a slimy mess. Don't think it's just child play. It could be precisely the stress reliever you are looking for.