You may have heard a Baby Boomer or Gen X-er cry: "The youth of today only play with iPads and their PlayStations... In our day we got our hands dirty!"
Well, modern tweens are getting their hands glittery, shiny and sparkly in the newest craze sweeping the world: slime.
It's not the dark green, crusty, salty gak of our childhood. It's stretchy, sparkly, colourful and smells like the delicate moisturiser and shaving cream it's made of.
If you live with a tween, you're probably sick to death of picking it up off the kitchen bench or listening to the poppy YouTube videos of multi-million dollar slime-makers.
Four Auckland 10-year-old girls are just a few of those who have started their own business, selling it out of plastic baggies in the school playground.
"I made $7.50 today," Nellie tells us proudly.
"We have a shared folder on Docs to talk about our business," Lena adds.
For these girls, getting stuck into the slime after they've had their afternoon tea and done their homework isn't just a hobby. It's a business.
They are already being flooded with commissions by their classmates: different colours, some with glitter and beads. They tell us they can make it "crunchy or jiggly", but always pretty; simply by mixing water, borax, PVA glue and food colouring.
In this playground version of Breaking Bad, the girls stumbled across their business simply out of a love of mixing and creating. But now they have a slick system.
"So first we put the slime inside the bag, and then I'd write the person's name and their order and the company name on the bag. Then I'd get my cash," Nelle explains.
The craze also means a lucrative turn in business at stationary stores around the country. Edward Hall, store manager at Riccarton Warehouse Stationary in Christchurch, said he "couldn't believe it" when the ingredients started "flying off the shelves".
Additions include glitter, paint and even wobbly eyes for the advanced slime maker.
"A couple of times we've run of PVA. They were devastated. We've been keeping up as best we can. With school holidays coming up it's going to go even crazier."
Our group of pre-teen entrepreneurs said they were "totally inspired" by their favourite 'slime DIY' YouTubers, where video tutorials garner millions of views and attract lucrative advertising and sponsorship deals for their creators.
The most popular is 23-year-old Karina Garcia, who has made enough to buy herself a house, simply from her crazy slick and pretty slime videos. She has sponsorships with Coca-Cola and Disney ranging from US$30,000 to $60,000, she told the New York Times.
"There are times when it's $200,000 in a really good month."
It doesn't look as if slime is going anywhere just yet. For Dotty, Lena, Ava and Nellie, it's already the highlight of their day... even more so than that other craze sweeping the nation. When I asked them what won out between slime and fidget spinners, it seemed to be a pretty dumb question.
"This," they said in unison, holding their beloved goo.
"Sorry fidget spinners - this is more fun."
Newshub.
