Fidget Spinner / Trendy toy from the U.S. (not an ad)

Dear users, dear authors,
The trendy toy known as the fidget spinner seems to have passed its peak of popularity in the U.S. The idea was that restless kids could use them to calm themselves down and practice their dexterity, but since so many children now have and use one—even in class—many people are finding them disruptive.
Since the trend is now spreading to Germany, here are my questions for you:
Do you have one of these toys? Do your kids have one?
What are your thoughts on it?

I only recently became aware of this at all.
Since I don’t have kids and my fingers are always busy with needles and yarn, I’m happy to let this trend pass me by ;-)

I’ve never seen one in my life, but it looks cool :)
If I had kids, I’d get them one 

The other day I saw a kid on the bus with one of those. He actually looked pretty bored :-)
It certainly doesn’t bother me. It’s just another way to get money out of parents’ pockets, just like previous generations of kids desperately needed other things—things like Tamagotchis, MP3 players, Game Boys, and yo-yos. Now it’s just fidget spinners.

My kids actually have fidget spinners. Still, I’m skeptical about the trend.
Yes, these things can be a great help to kids with concentration problems, hyperactivity, or motor skill difficulties… But in my opinion, anyone who doesn’t have a “problem” shouldn’t make one out of it.
In general, I think spinners can be a positive addition for everyone, but it’s also possible to overdo it.
At the latest, when kids start playing with them in class for no real reason (and to me, that’s all it is until an expert has recommended it—and by that I mean neither educators nor parents), the whole point of a spinner becomes complete nonsense.

I’ve also observed what is almost addictive behavior in some of my kids’ friends. And I find that absolutely unnecessary.

So I’m glad that my kids only find these things interesting once or twice a week for about 10 minutes and realize how silly it would be to climb trees with a spinner in their hands. 

Well, I don’t know… it would make me more nervous than calm me down. It’s kind of nice as a toy for a while, but as a therapeutic tool? Probably just a good marketing strategy. But I’m sure this too will pass...

I hadn’t heard of it before. I’d probably go for a regular “spinning top” instead. As a form of therapy, though, it seems a bit strange to me. I could much more easily imagine sports being a better option for hyperactivity. Otherwise, if it’s fun…

Well, my husband and son have ADHD… and of course they got their hands on these right away—and even received a few as gifts (you do need glow-in-the-dark ones for nighttime, after all^^). Like everything else, it was only interesting to my son for 2–3 days. Now the spinners are just lying around… phew.
My husband, however, has one of them in his hand every evening while watching TV, and it’s driving me crazy. Now I can choose whether I’d rather put up with him constantly getting up and fidgeting—or the whirring and dropping of the spinner…

But as I always say… there are worse things, and this craze will pass eventually too :-)

Best regards

Since “everyone” has a spinner (according to my daughter), she naturally had to buy one too… she now has three different ones and uses them too. Since she doesn’t have ADHD or anything like that, I can’t comment on any therapeutic effects.
Parents who hope the spinner will keep their child away from their cell phone need to know that’s not the case, because kids use their phones to make videos showing how long the spinner spins…

There are worse trends (like Loom Bands, for example).
At least the spinners don’t take up much space and don’t bother me.
Since they’re paid for with their own allowance, that’s absolutely fine.

Yes, as the mother of a son with ADHD, once I’d read the “studies,” I was more than happy to buy my son one because he absolutely had to have it.
My honest opinion: it doesn’t help people with ADHD concentrate or improve their ability to focus; rather, it merely draws their attention while they’re using it and thus “prevents” them from fidgeting around, because otherwise it would fall to the ground. However, the child or adult doesn’t take in any more of what might be important than they would without a fidget spinner.
The “studies” are probably based on the idea that it’s better for someone to spin one of these things between their fingers than, for example, to run around in class, drum with pens, shout out, etc.

@Claudia:
What are you “doing” about your son’s ADHD?

Best regards

When we were on vacation in Germany recently, I saw these things for the first time. We had to ask the saleswoman what you’re supposed to do with them.
Since my kids are already grown up and have left home, this trend is passing us by.
Back in the day, we used to have fun with elastic skipping and spinning tops. Sure, those were different times, but I don’t think you have to jump on every trend.

@ Nina,

we’ve been through everything, starting with psychologists, occupational therapy, chiropractors, homeopathy, osteopathy......then on to learning support...concentration training..group therapies...a total of 10 years from one thing to the next.....^you do grasp at every straw^^
Bottom line: None of it helped. My son had to take strong meds from the time he was 6 years old to make it somewhat bearable for EVERYONE. The main problem with him was the aggression (thank God only at home) and of course the concentration.....the restlessness wasn’t a problem for us, even though it was really exhausting.
We stopped the meds 3 years ago, because everything changed for him during puberty. Since then he has been totally calm, no more fidgeting. He is 16 now, doing quite well at Realschule (the prognosis was special school)  and we are happy with how everything has developed. For a few years we really were “at the end of our rope,” that’s how bad it was. He still can’t concentrate for long, but when something interests him, he sticks with it, so I hope he finds a suitable job.

Best regards

Out of curiosity, I bought a fidget spinner yesterday at Action for 1.89 euros. When I got home, I realized it’s a great toy for cats. At first, my cats sat in front of me quite meditatively and watched it spin, and then they wanted to give it a try with their little paws too. So it wasn’t a waste of money. :)

@ Claudia

Thank you so much for your detailed response!

Fortunately, our son isn’t aggressive, so in that respect we have a big advantage over many families dealing with ADHD! And I’m truly grateful for that.
We don’t use medication, because in our case that would “only” make the teachers’ jobs easier, since our son is quite responsive when you talk to him. He also gets along well with his homeroom teacher because she accepts him as he is and knows how to handle him well. It’s difficult with the English teacher—she already “threatened” to give him a poor grade on his report card (even though his written test grades have always been around a 2) because he disrupts her class... Other teachers don’t want to or can’t deal with “troublemakers” either... oh well...
Thank God, he’s doing quite well grade-wise, although—surely the same as with your child—the grades he gets don’t reflect his intellect.
I’m curious to see what kind of evaluation he’ll get when the change of school comes up next year.
At home, he can spend hours quietly զբաղying himself with his train set or drawing. Here in our new neighborhood, he’s found a few nice boys on the street (none of them meek little followers or sit-quietly-in-the-corner types ;) ) who like him and whom he likes. Right next door lives a special education teacher who, of course, knows the subject very well and keeps encouraging and reassuring us that we don’t need medication. Our little one goes to a child psychologist, which he enjoys. We’ve been to the chiropractor twice now—will it help? I don’t know.
There’s a table tennis club here, and that’s finally a sport he enjoys, one that challenges and encourages him for 1.5 hours twice a week, and that had been completely missing so far.

He takes omega-3 and magnesium because they’re supposed to be beneficial, but the rest of us take them too.

You’re giving me hope again that things will get better with puberty. A few mothers have told me that too.
There are probably still another 5 years to go until then (he’s only 8, so he’s probably at the height of this phase right now anyway...), but we’ll get through that too!

All the best to you all!

@Nina,

that already sounds pretty good for you. For us, unfortunately, it didn’t work without medication, and we resisted it for a long time. I was always afraid of long-term effects… which no one can—or will—tell you about…
And unfortunately, we had absolutely no support from the school or from the people around us; they always said, “The child isn’t normal.” But that only spurred me on even more to fight for a “normal life” for him… even though it cost a lot of tears, nerves, and money—I’m sure every mother can relate to that. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that these kids are always underestimated and could achieve so much more with support. In preschool, they tried to tell me he was gifted in math. No sooner had he started school than his math teacher said we should have him tested for dyscalculia—she claimed he couldn’t even add 1 and 1^^. Of course, we had him tested for that, and he doesn’t have dyscalculia!
Even with medication, he wasn’t “sedated,” which is what people always like to claim when someone is given those strong drugs. His temperament remained unaffected by them....

We stopped giving him the pills every year during summer break, and eventually it just worked out. I’m very glad that we’ve finally left that behind us and that he—and we—are coping well with his—our—life. All the best to you too, and I hope you continue to receive support and understanding from all sides. Years of struggle really wear you down.....

Kind regards

What a question ;-)
My son is 11 years old... OF COURSE we already have one of those things *haha*

But I still don’t understand why it’s supposed to be “annoying”—all my friends are complaining about it.
It doesn’t bother me, I have to say.

He’s even got it in his hand while playing soccer now! That’s what I call coordination training!