got to go 'round

June 18, 2011 6:24 PM

You spin me right round baby.
posted by flapjax at midnite (67 comments total)

The Rapture - now for children!
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 6:25 PM on June 18, 2011

sweet !!!!!!!!!!! this made me smile. thank you.
posted by seawallrunner at 6:26 PM on June 18, 2011

Adorable (but pass the dramamine).
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:29 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Am I the only person that automatically assumed it was a link to meatspin?
posted by JimmyJames at 6:29 PM on June 18, 2011 [21 favorites]

Those are about the happiest faces you'll ever see. And that's one of the best things about children, that they're nearly always a simple swing-around from pure ecstasy.
posted by ericost at 6:30 PM on June 18, 2011 [4 favorites]

I would've loved to see the photos of all the kids who were accidentally dropped and went flying!
posted by markkraft at 6:32 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Next person to spew vitriolic childfree rhetoric in my direction gets a face-full of this gallery, oh yes.
posted by pts at 6:32 PM on June 18, 2011 [10 favorites]

That's a great way to dislocate the kid's shoulder
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:32 PM on June 18, 2011 [4 favorites]

Working at a preschool/kindergarten has ruined me. The first thing I do when seeing those photos is internally cringe and worry about the kids' elbows popping out of joint. (T_T)

I'd much rather be able to look at them and see them for the cute, happy photos they are!
posted by emmling at 6:34 PM on June 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

That's a great way to dislocate the kid's shoulder

Well, it's certainly the most fun way. Funnest way?
posted by deliquescent at 6:35 PM on June 18, 2011 [7 favorites]

Are the twohanded grippers wearing the cameras on miner's helmet type contraptions or something? Did they duct tape a tripod under their chins? I wonder how many snaps it took to get a clean in-focus pic.

Anyway, really cool collection, thanks!
posted by rollick at 6:38 PM on June 18, 2011

They probably had a third person with their arms around the spinner take the picture of the spinee. A sort of human spinipede.
posted by stavrogin at 6:41 PM on June 18, 2011 [15 favorites]

Awesome! Also, kids are not the little weaklings they may seem. They don't actually get injured that easily, and even if they do they heal quickly.
posted by spiderskull at 6:44 PM on June 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

DELIGHT
DELIGHT
DELIGHT
DELIGHT
DELIGHT
DELIGHT
DELIGHT
DELIGHT
DELIGHT
DELIGHT
DELIGHT
DELIGHT
DELIGHT
DELIGHT
ABJECT TERROR
DELIGHT
posted by foursentences at 6:47 PM on June 18, 2011 [15 favorites]

ISO one burly MeFite to do this with me.
posted by Nomyte at 6:49 PM on June 18, 2011 [10 favorites]

Tips:

1. Accelerate and decelerate slowly. Prevents dislocation.

2. Otherwise, grab the ankles. Our little monster much prefers this.

3. Try not to vomit when done. Clutch ground tightly while other adult monitors the child who, of course, is completely unaffected.
posted by Dr.Enormous at 6:52 PM on June 18, 2011 [5 favorites]

Ugh
posted by Joseph Gurl at 6:53 PM on June 18, 2011

If there is a Heaven, this is what I hope God does when you get there.
posted by swift at 6:55 PM on June 18, 2011 [36 favorites]

Cuter than kittens!
posted by Ochre,Hugh at 6:58 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Being spun around like this is super fun, but my favoritest thing on the planet when I was this little was walking between two adults, holding their hands, and having them lift up their arms and swing me between them.

I was so crushed the day my mom refused to do it anymore on account of I was a fat little rotator cuff destroying kid. :(
posted by palomar at 7:08 PM on June 18, 2011 [11 favorites]

Needs more HDR.
posted by munchingzombie at 7:09 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Aww, that's a fun post!
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 7:12 PM on June 18, 2011

The galleries feature on Flickr is really quite great.
posted by maryr at 7:13 PM on June 18, 2011

I did this a while back with a still camera taped to my neck. There, you made me go and upload it.
posted by fungible at 7:17 PM on June 18, 2011 [31 favorites]

I picked up my friends daughter to do this and immediately felt her shoulder pop, never again. That said, really cool pics, neat idea, well executed. Is there any info on how they did it?
posted by doctor_negative at 7:24 PM on June 18, 2011

Very cool, but it's not nice to provide an earworm without a link to assuage.
posted by bitslayer at 7:26 PM on June 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

I did this a while back with a still camera taped to my neck.

I like the panting, "OK there ... Stop ..." at the end. I could almost feel the vertigo.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 7:26 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Aww, fungible, the look on her face is incredible! She's flying!!!
posted by sarahnade at 7:26 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Working at a preschool/kindergarten has ruined me. The first thing I do when seeing those photos is internally cringe and worry about the kids' elbows popping out of joint.

The key is to only let regular humans do the spinning. No metahumans allowed to do the spinning. Especially Thor. Thor is not allowed to do the spinning. He gets all, "this is like swinging my might hammer Mjolnir" and it all goes straight to hell.

I mean, straight to underworld.

Also, Ben Grimm and Mr Fantastic excepted. They are great with kids.
posted by humannaire at 7:45 PM on June 18, 2011 [9 favorites]

The best thing about kids' happy faces is that they are completely, absolutely sincere. I love that.
posted by Ron Thanagar at 7:48 PM on June 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

This post is full of win spin! Instant smiles. I have triplet nieces so there's no let-up for me, as the minute I put one down, the others want another go; this ends up with hysterical laughing as their uncle clutches the earth in a desperate attempt to restore gravity.
posted by arcticseal at 7:57 PM on June 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

Am I the only person that automatically assumed it was a link to meatspin?

I assumed it was going to be a link to this: "Worst Worship Ever" which made the rounds of Evangelical blogs back in 2009.
posted by Jahaza at 8:06 PM on June 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

Next person to spew vitriolic childfree rhetoric in my direction gets a face-full of this gallery, oh yes.

Our planet may have limited resources and a grim future facing it, and would probably be much better off if so many people didn't succumb to the blind instinctual desire to propagate their own genes regardless of the cost to our species and every other form of life on the only habitable planet we know of, but gosh darn it, aren't kids cute? Sure, they might face a horrible future in a world plagued by increasing inequality and a deteriorating environment, but at least they'll have fun while they're brains are still immature and unable to grasp the harsh reality that life has in store for them! Hell, we should all have at least three of the cute little buggers!

Yes, I am fun at parties. Why do you ask?
posted by Thoughtcrime at 8:13 PM on June 18, 2011 [16 favorites]

Yeah, can't do this with my youngest anymore. When he was less than two years old, elbow was popped out of joint during an unfortunate playtime with older brother in the car. Took him to the hospital, "Nursemaids elbow", 15 seconds with the doctor and back it goes.

Then at pre-school, one of his favorite teachers picked him up by both hands to swing him out onto the playground. Pop, out it goes, freaked the teacher right out.
posted by shinynewnick at 8:14 PM on June 18, 2011

My daughter is more a fan of a little game known as "I'm going to suddenly and without warning leap from a high place and make you perform a diving catch while I giggle with joy, after which you will have to sit down and wait for your pulse rate to return to normal."
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 8:17 PM on June 18, 2011 [10 favorites]

My daughter is more a fan of a little game known as "I'm going to suddenly and without warning leap from a high place and make you perform a diving catch while I giggle with joy, after which you will have to sit down and wait for your pulse rate to return to normal."

My brother and I used to regularly clamber on top of the house and jump off the one story roof using towels and blankets as "parachutes". It was quite the feat to be able to climb up the front trellis and slowly, quietly crawl on the roof making sure to stay on the joists, because if Mom heard us she'd make us get down.

The goal was often to make it to edge of the roof over the kitchen or living room window or wherever she happened to be and then jump so we'd be falling past the window. That never got old. For us, at least. Probably didn't help mom much.
posted by loquacious at 8:37 PM on June 18, 2011 [9 favorites]

i tried this with my kid but my hands was still full of grease from the slaughterhouse and none of us heard that train comin
posted by kitchenrat at 8:55 PM on June 18, 2011 [19 favorites]

I am totally doing this with my next date.

The other restaurant patrons will just have to deal.
posted by LordSludge at 9:54 PM on June 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

DELIGHT
DELIGHT
DELIGHT
etc.

I don't know. Several of the delighted ones also looked scared, and the terrified one didn't look so terrified that he wouldn't ever do it again.
posted by Bruce H. at 10:29 PM on June 18, 2011

i sort of do this with my two month old. only i leave her in her car seat and swing her faster and faster until i can see the g-forces pulling her chubby little cheeks down and she sort of looks just like she did seconds out of the birth canal. she usually starts crying and mom gets pissed and i realize i am drunk and probably shouldn't have driven everyone home.

i kid though, these pics are funzerz!
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 10:33 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! i miss doing that with my bbs.

btw, palomar, THING2 was a mommy/daddy swing freak and at 11 years old he still resents the fact we can't swing him anymore. he just said so the other day :')
posted by liza at 11:04 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

My oldest is nearing 7, and she's getting to heavy to manhandle. I still have some years left of quality stunts with my boys, though. I'm probably going to miss it when the youngest is too big, though...
posted by Harald74 at 11:08 PM on June 18, 2011

I'll date myself here and say I loved being spun around like this, accompanied by one of my favorite 60s songs

I'm so dizzy my head is spinning
Like a whirlpool it never ends
And it's You girl makin' it spin
You're making me dizzy
my head is spinning
Like a whirlpool it never ends
And it's You girl making it spin
You're making me dizzy
you're making me dizzy

Ah, childhood. Excellent.
posted by AirBeagle at 11:12 PM on June 18, 2011

Re: joints dislocating: I've been told that it mostly happens with limp children, i.e. doesn't want to leave the toy store etc. When they're tense, as in preparing to swing, their muscles support the joints much better and they normally do not dislocate.

I came by this information when I managed to pop my daughter's elbow joint out while fishing her out from under some furniture where she was hiding to avoid brushing her teeth and going to bed. We ended up with a doctor's visit, which put things pretty much right with her elbow, and me feeling like absolute shit.
posted by Harald74 at 11:13 PM on June 18, 2011

2. Otherwise, grab the ankles. Our little monster much prefers this.

Uh... This is a bad idea. It's one thing to accidentally bump an ankle against an obstacle (or the ground) and quite another thing to smash the kid's head on it.

I'm looking at you, Donald Sutherland!
posted by Sys Rq at 11:40 PM on June 18, 2011

Can someone please opine on how this is done? If there's an easy way I'm not seeing, that is.
posted by Dragonness at 12:00 AM on June 19, 2011

Well, it's certainly the most fun way. Funnest way?


FUNNEST WAY



Which is perhaps not the most grammatically correct, but it is the most descriptive. If you recall what it felt like to be spun, you will concur. Funnest. Mostest fun.
posted by louche mustachio at 12:54 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Cuter than kittens!

That is because, when you hold kittens by the wrists, their claws can reach your hands. Then you end up with a picture of a startled kitten flying away from bleeding hands, which, although also FPP-worthy, appears in a different Flickr gallery.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:06 AM on June 19, 2011 [6 favorites]

Then you end up with a picture of a startled kitten flying away from bleeding hands, which, although also FPP-worthy, appears in a different Flickr gallery.

Link, please!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:18 AM on June 19, 2011

Happy Father's Day, Dads of Metafilter, and kids of Metafilter.
posted by theora55 at 6:08 AM on June 19, 2011

aw man. I am seeing my dad in about an hour and I'm tempted to ask him to do this justonemoretimepleeeease. Probably not a good idea.

I was always a small kid, always underweight, so I got to do this stuff long after other kids my age were too big. My dad would pick me up above his head and "throw" me into bed at night.
posted by desjardins at 6:17 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Can someone please opine on how this is done? If there's an easy way I'm not seeing, that is.

To the left of some of the photos is "How I took this photo." For example, "I created a little pipe-cleaner harness for my camera and held it in my mouth. Then I spun and spun taking a picture on timer each time."
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:33 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Link, please!

I regret to inform you that this is imaginary. We cannot condone or be seen to condone the flinging of kittens. Kittens fling themselves quiet enough, thank you. (From the comments above, it seems that children also fling themselves quite enough.)
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:52 AM on June 19, 2011

For example, "I created a little pipe-cleaner harness for my camera and held it in my mouth. Then I spun and spun taking a picture on timer each time."

That actually totally explains the expression on the kid's face, which is 50% "woooo, this is fun!" and 50% "Daddy looks really silly."
posted by craichead at 7:21 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

when I was little my parents would carry me between them with their elbows bent, hands on hips, so I could do somersaults backward and forward as they walked.

Then when I was in grade school, a favorite recess activity was for two girls to stand side by side, feet braced together, and arms bent with fist on hip. A third girl (me!) would then take a running start, dive between them with arms linked into theirs, and quickly do a walk-out somersault. On concrete. On the school playground. Yeah, I don't know how we got away with that either.
posted by toodleydoodley at 8:05 AM on June 19, 2011

On concrete. On the school playground. Yeah, I don't know how we got away with that either.

Oh dude. At the school I went to for third grade, the most funnest recess activity was doing cherry drops and knee spins on the pull-up bars, which were installed in hard-packed dirt with pointy gravel strewn over the top.

What the hell, Auburn School District. I still have scars.
posted by palomar at 9:07 AM on June 19, 2011

If there is a Heaven, this is what I hope God does when you get there.

""Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." --- Mark 10:14
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 9:54 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

I was worried when I clicked on this link that it would have something to do with all of the penises on chat roulette.
posted by Fizz at 10:51 AM on June 19, 2011

This was delightful! Then I googled meatspin. Not delighted anymore.
posted by carsonb at 10:53 AM on June 19, 2011 [2 favorites]

Hey, sure beats this.
posted by obscurator at 11:13 AM on June 19, 2011

This joint dislocation: colloquially called "Nursemaid's elbow." My daughter got it once, and as someone noted above, limpness could indeed be a part of it. It happened when we were taking a walk, and she was holding my hand and my wife's hand. She liked to just go limp sometimes. Well, ouch for her. The P.A. tried to fix it. Couldn't. Tried the next day. Worked. We were told to be careful until she was five.

Didn't stop the swinging, though. I just grabbed her upper arms.
posted by kozad at 1:33 PM on June 19, 2011

I've reduced Nursemaids elbows before and consciously imagine myself doing it for my son every time I pick him up to hurl him in circles. Usually on concrete floors.

Also, and I soooo hesitate to derail the thread, but fuck it, it's Father's day and I fucking love my kid so much: while it is a perfectly valid decision to consciously abstain from procreation for the sake of reducing population and human suffering, to rub a parent's nose in your self righteous sarcastic shit suggests a bitterness and misanthropy that is soo much more harmful to the future of humanity than the lightness and love that raising my single child to be a gentle, compassionate citizen of the world has brought into my life. The love and concern I have for my child has changed how I approach everything else in my life. Quit my job, got rid of my car, buy organic and local, got involved in politics, work at a clinic for homeless people, writing and performing music, cut way back on drinking and smoking and TV, all in an effort to be the kind of person I want my child to grow up to be. Yeah, lots of shitheads have too many babies they don't care about, brilliant deduction Sherlock. But even if you don't you think, as most parents do, a world where kids were loved and valued more would be a much better world for all of us, couldn't you at least refrain from stating your views in a thread that celebrates cute pictures of happy kids? What the fuck is wrong with you?
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 3:09 PM on June 19, 2011 [5 favorites]

*grabs camera, two-year-old, heads out to nearest park
posted by zardoz at 3:12 PM on June 19, 2011

Slarty, well said.
posted by deliquescent at 6:44 PM on June 19, 2011

That's a great way to dislocate the kid's shoulder

This happened to me, although I think it was the variation where you hold an arm AND a leg and have the kid act like a plane. I was too young to really remember much, but my mother says I howled like a stuck pig. At the emergency room, all the personnel gave my dad ugly stares as if the swinging for fun was a cover story for deliberate child abuse -- and this was before the child-protection revolution of the 1970s.
posted by dhartung at 7:08 PM on June 19, 2011

Slarty is my hero of the day.
posted by DWRoelands at 6:30 AM on June 20, 2011

What a great concept! That inspires me to do something similar for my clients.
posted by headshotlondon at 6:29 PM on July 9, 2011