Bubble Wrap Celebrates 50 Years….Now Protecting a New Generation of Kids!

Bubble Wrap turned fifty this week. Over its fifty year history, Bubble Wrap has protected everthing from packing vases to medical equipment. Now, it seems to have a new role. Bubble Wrap is now protecting our next Generation of kids - Generation Z, The Bubble Wrap Kids!

According to McCrindle Research, “this generation of families are smaller, parents are older and most mothers are in the workforce. There's less smacking, a lot of structured after-school activities and a bit of a "bubble-wrap" mentality where kids are driven everywhere and playgrounds have rubberised surfaces. All this translates, McCrindle says, into a generation that's "fairly demanding and maybe a bit precocious" with high expectations and plenty of material comforts and toys.”

A great article in Time Magazine discusses the rise of the Bubble Wrap phenomenon. In the 1990s there was a shift in the way we parented our children – safety became our major factor in everything.

“Scrapes became ER visits and playing in the front yard became ‘banished to the playroom basement.’ Daily reports of children snatched off suburban streets and pedophiles hiding in the bushes overtook this nation and our reaction was swift and sure: protect our children at any price. What parents didn’t realize then, is that now there may be a hefty price tag for a generation of overly-parented kids.”

“The insanity crept up on us slowly; we just wanted what was best for our kids. We bought macrobiotic cupcakes and hypoallergenic socks, hired tutors to correct a 5-year-old’s “pencil-holding deficiency,” hooked up broadband connections in the treehouse but took down the swing set after the second skinned knee. We hovered over every school, playground and practice field — “helicopter parents,” teachers christened us, a phenomenon that spread to parents of all ages, races and regions. Stores began marketing stove-knob covers and “Kinderkords” (also known as leashes; they allow “three full feet of freedom for both you and your child”) and Baby Kneepads.”

The question we should all be asking ourselves – how will this generation of Bubble Wrapped kids cope in the real world?