How Sliming Your Kids Can Make The Best Memories

I think back to when I was a child and the memories that almost always coming flooding back when I let my mind wander. There was the time my childhood best friend, Tony, and I sprayed water and dish liquid all over my kitchen floor because we wanted to go ice skating and my mother wasn’t awake to bring us. Roller Skating around the first floor of my house, through the living room, to the front hallway, to the kitchen, then into the dining room while avoiding the dining room table, and finally back into the living room. Climbing trees as high as I could climb them and building tree platforms instead of actual houses. All of these memories are things that I initiated or did by myself.

I sat for awhile thinking of things that my mother or other family members did with me when I was a child and those took a little longer to remember. I wondered why. I went to Disney World for my fifth birthday and remember almost every second of that. I remember birthday parties, holidays and the Halloween parties when we would bob for apples in our bathtub. I’m sure if you asked my mother what some of her favorite things we did when I was a child were, they would differ greatly – or at least I think they would.

Now that I have children of my own, I am very conscious of what they do and constantly wonder what they will remember about their childhood when they get older. I wonder if my mother thought the same thing. I wonder if all parents think that, I assume they do. We all have photographs to remember these moments, but now that everything is digital what happens to those memories? Will my kids go and look at their blog, their Flickr page or access the memory chip in their head when they want to see pictures of their childhood as adults?

My parents brought our family to Disney World two summers ago. It was my boys first time on a plane and first time to Disney. I imagine this will be one of their biggest memories of being children, but of course they’re still young (8 and 6) and have many years to build other awesome memories.

A couple months ago, my boys watched the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards for the first time. They didn’t stay up to watch them, but Jasper (my 8-year-old) set the DVR to record it and they watched it at their convenience. Their favorite part was when the celebrities were slimed and would rewind and rewatch that happen over and over again. The idea of being slimed themselves was something that came to my boys a short time later.

Growing up, I watched the Nickelodeon show You Can’t Do That On Television and wanted nothing more than to be one of the kid actors on that show. If you’re familiar with that show, you will totally feel me when I say I wanted to be locked in a locker only to pop out and say something funny and then close the locker. I wanted to say, “I don’t know” and be slimed. You Can’t Do That On Television was a sketch comedy show starring pre-teens and teenagers acting out sketches based on a specific theme. I went as far as making my own slime and asking my mother to slime me while I was sitting in the bathtub on more than one occasion. The Kids Choice Awards are the closest my kids will ever get to this same idea and wanted it for themselves.

One Friday afternoon two weeks ago, after school was over, my boys came home and I slimed them.  There was more build up to just sliming them cause it wasn’t going to be that easy of a payoff. I spent a little time before they got home finding a recipe to make ‘Nickelodeon Slime’ and then made it. Here’s the recipe I found and can vouch for it’s authenticity since the slime I made as a child was terrible and stained my skin green. This recipe didn’t do that, but I must warn you it is messy and if you don’t clean it up right away it is a bitch to clean later.

3 gallons may seem like a lot, but in one bucket poured over the porch on to my oh-so-suspecting children it ended up being just enough (they wanted more). I made a scavenger hunt of sorts where they would get a riddle/clue and lead them to the next riddle/clue and so on until they made it to the backyard. One clue lead them to their bedroom to change into their bathing suits before heading outside. That step is totally recommended. Once outside and standing on the ‘X’ where they were sent via a clue, my parents poured the slime over their heads. They knew it was coming and they loved it.

I spent a lot of time later looking at the pictures I took of them being slimed while all these thoughts I’ve written floated around in my head. I can’t imagine my boys will ever forget that afternoon. I also can’t wait to plan something else as cool as sliming my boys to add to that chip in their brains they can access while remembering their childhoods as adults.