The slosh and thuds of water bottles are driving parents and teachers across the country just about mad. The pastime of “bottle flipping” is a growing craze among kids who toss partially filled plastic water bottles in the air and try to get them to land upright.
“I wish it would stop!” said Kristen Smith, who teaches at Moncton’s Hillcrest School.
“The boys are on my soccer team and every time they have a two-second break during training, this is what they were doing.”
“Whenever we’re on the bench waiting to go on, we just flip bottles and hope for the best,” Grade 8 student Lucas Chapman said.
Smith says she just can’t get away from the mind-numbing thumps. She says her own kids are in on the action, sending videos of themselves back home to the land down under.
“They also have friends on the other side of the world in Australia who are doing the exact same thing, driving me nuts from a distance.”
Bottle flipping is believed to have its origins in a 2016 viral video of Mike Senatore flipping a water bottle at a talent show at his North Carolina school.
“It kind went viral from there and everyone does it now,” Grade 8 student Ayden Osburne said.
The game has become so popular that some schools have actually banned bottle flipping.
“We had to be pretty clear about that: no bottle tossing in the classroom,” Smith said.
But she says there may be a payoff for parents: stop by a recycling bin and Christmas is a no brainer.
“Like babies when you give them the wrapping, you can just give the boys the empty plastic bottles.”