# Help!  Two 6-year-olds, Packing Peanuts - Need I Say More?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-two-6-year-olds-packing-peanuts-need-i-say-more/393357>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [February 23, 2007, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-two-6-year-olds-packing-peanuts-need-i-say-more/393357 "2007-02-23T11:24:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-two-6-year-olds-packing-peanuts-need-i-say-more/393357/21 "2007-02-24T14:08:47Z")

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[QUOTE=Jake]  
Mebby “Foam Packaging Peanuts” would have made the OP a bit clearer.  
Or not. 🙂  
[/QUOTE]

Reading this thread I’ve been getting steadilly more and more confused, wondering how little hard brown edible things could be so hard to sweep/clean.

Then I thought it might be those little round polystyrene balls (about the size of a garden pea)…

Then I thought of packages and the penny dropped. Those polystyrene things that look like a peanut shell (elongated, the size of half an adult thumb). Until today I never knew they were refrered to as ‘packing peanuts’. I saw the verb (or is it noun? … my knowledge of grammar is crap… ‘to pack’ ‘packing’) in the title.

To me a peanut is the nut without the shell, salted, edible, again the size of a garden pea. Very tasty.

What 6 year old wouldn’t happily spend hours munching away on scattered peanuts one-by-one until they’re all cleared up?

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**Author:** ![The\_Punkyova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@The\_Punkyova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Punkyova)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-two-6-year-olds-packing-peanuts-need-i-say-more/393357/22 "2007-02-24T15:44:21Z")

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**Lobsang** , I’m sorry this confused you. I went back and re-read the OP, and I can see that it would be confusing if you didn’t know that the white puffy things were called “packing peanuts.” I’ve had the same kind of experiences, so I sympathise.

**Adoptamom II** , that actually sounds like a handy bottle to keep around. I’ll make some up.

**SnakesCatLady** , daughter and friend. Thanks, I try!

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**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-two-6-year-olds-packing-peanuts-need-i-say-more/393357/23 "2007-02-24T15:55:00Z")

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**Adoptamom II** ’s mix can also be sprayed onto bubble bath bubbles and dishwashing bubbles to disappear them right quick if you don’t want to waste water breaking them down at the end of washing or risk a soap ring around your tub. And also useful when your daughter decides to be helpful and runs the dishwasher using hand soap instead of dishwasher detergent and you have knee high bubbles all over your kitchen and down the hall. Just to save you another cry for help post. 😉

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