Zhu Zhu Pets - A Girl Scout's dream

You know Zhu Zhu Pets are "the" hot toy of the holiday season when the soccer moms talk about their multiple trips to Toys R Us and Target for the chance to buy one in October! I had NO idea and am now in BIG trouble!

Thanks to the ladies at Mom Select, I was sent a set of Zhu Zhu pets to host a party at home.  Rather than the typical gathering, I decided to take the little hamsters to my daughter's Brownie troop.  The troop leaders and I created a lesson plan where the girls focused on the concept of responsibility. For a six year olds this was a big concept to work on.  They talked about about making their beds, setting the table and cleaning after their pets.   The girls were thrilled to hear that after successfully completing a  pre-chosen chore for two weeks they would each be rewarded with a a Zhu Zhu pet.   Individually, they created chore (responsibility) charts for parents to check off daily. Some included picking up dog poop, washing cars and being nice to their younger siblings - I am looking forward to seeing their progress.

I was wary of the pets when they arrived.  Sure, they were cute and cuddly; but as a mom, I thought my six year old would be bored after 10 minutes.  Boy, was I wrong.  The girls were just giddy with excitement.   My 10 year old son took on the challenge of assembling the track, while the girls impatiently offered help.  We split the group of 18 girls into groups to do a round robin of games with their hamsters - the favorite being "races".   The girls laughed and cheered on their pets lovingly named, "Squeaky", "Bob" and "Chunk" to the finish line.   They made so much noise that kids from the nearby homework club all popped out to see what the fuss was about.  I was surprised that the older kids third through fifth graders were equally enamored.

We also got to check out an array of Zhu Zhu Pets™ accessories which included: 

• Hamster fun house
• Hamster wheel and tunnel
• Hamster-mobile and garage
• Spiral slide and ramp
• Adventure ball
• Surfboard and sleep dome
• Skateboard and U-turn

As the cost of $9.99 each, I am glad that each girl has the chance to earn their own pet.  At soccer practice, the moms mused about how two of the girls have been cleaning their rooms and brushing their teeth to ensure that they get earned a pet.

When I made the commitment to purchase a six more Zhu Zhu Pets to ensure that all 19 scouts got to have one I had NO idea that it would be so difficult to find  them.  I checked on several sites and found them all "out of stock".  I also found a few sites dedicated to selling them at the steep price of $25.00 to $30.00 each.  Yikes.  

Are these creatures worth it?  They are cute, but I am not sure if paying over the asking price is worth all the effort.  But if you are lucky enough to come across these and wonder if your child will like 'em, well I think that it is hard not to like these sweet things.  All the kids I have shown them to really love 'em, whether it was a boy or girl, scouts or neighbors.  They played with them for longer than 5 minutes and returned to them finding creative uses for them like building forts, racing them and just cuddling.

Unfortunately for me, I am now joining the legions of other moms on the hunt for these creatures.  Wish me luck!

FULL DISCLOSURE: I was sent a gift box of Zhu Zhu Pets through MomSelect. I did not receive any compensation to write this review.

Comments

[Samantha Laury]

Zhu Zhu pets are easily the cutest pets of the season; I love the patterns on their backs