OT Kids and Sparklers Poll

[PitterPatter]

With the 4th of July coming up I was just curious as to how many parents allow children to use sparklers. Obviously those parents who do allow it have a certain age before they permit kids to use them so that's why I created a poll. This is for an adult lighting the sparkler and handing it off to a child.

[sharlan]

We allow it at 2, ONLY with an adult standing behind the chair they are sitting in. NO walking around with a lit sparkler.

[SilverSabre25]

It's going to depend a LOT on the temperament of the child in question, but I would hazard a guess that *most* are capable of understanding the safety precautions by age 4 ("Hold it down here, hold it far out from your body, stand far away from other people", etc) if not before.

[pfund2233]

We don't do sparklers for fireworks. My fire fighter husband says they are a NO NO! ::

[Abigail]

I'm scared of sparklers myself, but I was introduced to them around 5 or 6 years old. I got burned by one when I was in sixth grade or so and developed the fear or them, . Snaps and Glowing Snakes are probably just as fun for the littles anyway. Does anyone buy too much when they buy fireworks and end up storing them until next year? Do snaps and snakes hold up over the years?

[DBug]

We celebrated Canada Day with sparklers, and had our annual sparkler injury . This time it was a 5 year old, and he ended up with a pretty bad burn.

I don't do them with the dc kids at all -- too much of a liability. But for my own kids, they were probably all around 4 when we allowed them to hold them solo.

[Cat Herder]

We don't do sparklers for fireworks. My fire fighter husband says they are a NO NO! ::

:::: My DH and I are both FF's... We do sparklers and smoke "bombs".

It is all about setup and education. Our kids have been responsible and educated enough to have never had an issue...

It is about what they will choose to do when we are NOT watching in college that has us teaching them fire safety now, YKWIM? ::::

[KEG123]

This year I let my son hold one, but only one. I was standing behind him with my hand over his hand, making sure he held it out in front of him. He turned 3 in April.