Nothing fills me with more fear than when I find out my tween son has been invited to a birthday party.
It’s not that I don’t want him to go to a birthday party, of course, but my fear stems from how increasingly difficult it feels to buy gifts for tween and teenage boys. My go-to little kid gifts of Nerf guns, play cars, and Legos don’t feel like they always cut it for tween boys anymore. (Although the Lego sets could be argued, and I do often fall back on those, because who doesn’t love Legos?)
When I’m not sure what to give for a tween boy’s birthday gift, though, I have found myself lately reaching for a rather unexpected choice:
Squeeze cheese.
ORB Easy Sqweezy Super Cheesy
$12
from
If you’re wondering what on earth squeeze cheese is, it’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like: it’s a giant, oversized, squeezable toy designed to look like a block of cheese.
It’s soft, stretchable, pliable, and risable. (I’m not sure if that’s a word, but we’re going with it.)
I first found this squeeze cheese on a frantic run to find a last-minute gift for a party my son had been invited to. I passed it, decided it was far too cheesy to give as a gift (ha!), then, when I couldn’t find anything else and was running out of time, grabbed it anyways. I wrapped it along with some candy and baseball cards, and hoped for the best.
Imagine my surprise when I picked my son up after the party was over and he and about 957 other sweaty tween boys were thundering around the birthday boy’s house, throwing none other than the giant block of squeeze cheese in the air and hurling their bodies after it.
The birthday boy’s mother looked exhausted and pressed herself against the wall as the herd of boys stampeded by us.
“Yeah,” she said with a tired sigh. “They’ve literally been playing with that cheese for hours. I don’t get it.”
ORB Easy Sqweezy Super Cheesy
I fully don’t get it either, but if it works, it works, and apparently, squeeze cheese works as a tween birthday gift, so I’m going with it.
I’ve now picked up squeeze cheese as a gift for several other birthday parties involving tweens, and it has never failed to be a hit. I guess there’s just something irresistible about cheese you can squeeze.
The squeeze cheese is a hefty size, 4.25 inches tall and 4.75 inches long, so it feels like it makes a respectable gift, especially when paired with a few other small items. If you have boys you’re gifting the squeeze cheese to, you should fully expect it to be tossed around within seconds of it being opened.
“I ordered this for myself as a stress reliever while I was on a family vacation,” reported one Amazon shopper. “My three nephews turned out using it more than I did. They loved tossing around and squishing this thing lol. I sent it home with them because they loved it so much.”
If you’re a Walmart shopper, I also found the squeeze cheese for nearly half the price there, although it’s a slightly smaller block at around 3 inches high.
Toymendous Squeeze Cheese
Like the Amazon version, this squeeze cheese has rave reviews from adults, teens, and kids alike. Some shoppers report using them as a sensory or fidget toy, while others say they’re just plain fun to play with. Others have even reported using the squeeze cheese as a form of physical therapy to regain hand strength after an injury.
Most of all, though, like I found, shoppers explained the cheese was a fun toy that turned out to be far more popular than expected.
“It’s cheap, durable, and it made my daughter happy,” said one Walmart shopper. “You really can’t ask for more than that.”
You really can’t, which is exactly why I will forever be a fan of the squeeze cheese.
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