Millennial Mom Goes Viral Teaching Daughters How to Skip-It: 'My Body Just Knew What to Do' (Exclusive)
Bonnie Lee tells PEOPLE that while she remembered just how to get into the rhythm, explaining it to her daughters was a bigger challenge
Bonnie Lee
Bonnie Lee Skip-It with daughtersBonnie Lee's daughters won a prize at an arcade recently — and landed on a Skip-It
The girls were puzzled by the toy and how to use it, but Mom remembered
Lee filmed a cute video of herself teaching her daughters over time — and they finally got the hang of it!
An arcade prize inspired a trip down memory lane for a mom of two, who got to pass some yesteryear magic on to her little girls.
Bonnie Lee, on TikTok @bonnieleetoks, went viral sharing a video of herself introducing her daughters, ages 6 and 9, to a Skip-It.
The kids' toy, first introduced in the '60s and popularized with digitized versions throughout the '80s and '90s, attaches to the ankle. The player has to swing the tethered ball around their leg, skipping over the ball each time it comes around.
Lee tells PEOPLE her two gymnast daughters were perplexed by their new toy at first.
"We were actually on vacation and we went to an arcade. It was time to cash in the tickets for prizes and I saw it. I said, 'Get a Skip-It! That’s fun!' My oldest said 'What’s a Skip-It?' "
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"I told the cashier, 'We’ll take the Skip-It,' " she says with a laugh.
The mom of two calls herself a "Skip-It and hula hoop pro," who found she took right back to it like no time had passed.
"My cousins and I would spend hours doing both. It was our favorite! So when I went to show the girls how to do it, it was like riding a bike — my body just knew what to do. But when the girls tried they couldn’t."
Lee tried to explain it to her daughters, who asked how she learned how to do it.
"I decided to film while I taught them and while I was filming, I realized I was humming the commercial jingle. I realized that’s how I learned! A commercial!"
They kept at it but their first Skip-It broke. Determined to get it down, they ordered new ones and, "Eventually, they did catch on! They were so proud and so was I," the mom says, adding with a laugh, "I'm still the best though."
Lee says it was "the best feeling" to see her daughters enjoy something that brought her so much joy at their age.
"I had an amazing childhood and those days playing with my cousins are some of my favorite memories," she shares.
"Watching your kids do anything you did as a kid and seeing the moment come full-circle just heals you somehow. Not to mention, kids today love their phones and iPads and don’t really have the same childhoods we had, so it felt nice to share something like this with them."
The content-creating mom says she's grateful that by filming, "I get to create this live scrapbook with them that I can look back on as well."
Commenters could relate to the nostalgic feeling.
"Seeing the comments made this one of my favorite posts! All these people sharing their memories or experiences with the Skip-It was so funny," Lee says.
"They made me remember little things about the Skip-It that I forgot, like how the Skip-It in the '90s would literally shatter your shins if it hit you which is why you better jump when it comes swinging around," she says with a laugh.
"It was like chatting with your friends or family about 'the good ole days,' and it made me happy! I think the post made a lot of people happy too, to see something fun and positive and remind people of their younger selves."
