Are fireworks too hot to handle for your kids?
Dad Days of Summer: While Momania’s Theresa Walsh Giarrusso takes a vacation, local dad and sportswriter Andy Johnston will be filling in. You can e-mail him at ajcmomania@gmail.com.
I don’t think a Fourth of July or New Year’s Eve passed without me, my brother, a cousin and a bunch of friends blowing up several dollars worth of fireworks.
Andy and his son Ty.
We shot all kinds, from Roman candles to those little metal things that flew up in the air to the bigger tubes that produced pretty colors and gave the neighbors something to watch.
But bottle rockets were our favorite, mainly, I think, because we could aim them.
We knew the rules. You were supposed to stick them in the bottle, which was supposed to be aimed at the sky. You were to light the fuse and supposed to move a safe distance.
Not us.
We shot bottle rockets at everything.
Trees. Cars. Houses. Each other.
We didn’t even use the bottles.
We’d hold them in our hand and throw them as far as we could at whatever we were trying to hit.
Crazy and stupid, rolled into one, but boys will be boys, as they say.
I’m surprised none of my friends were hurt, since we were the target age for fireworks-related injuries.
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) said that two of five (39 percent) victims of fireworks injuries in 2009 were under the age of 15. The highest risk of injury was for children ages 10 to 14. Here is some info about fireworks – did you know they can reach 1,200 degrees – and this website is for the kids.
At 5, Ty still covers his ears when fireworks are booming, so I figure that’s something we’ll have to deal with in a few years.
Do you let your kids shoot fireworks?
If so, are they unsupervised or do you watch what they’re doing?
At what age do you think it’s OK for kids to shoot fireworks?
- By Andy Johnston, for the Momania blog
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62 comments Add your comment
mountain man
July 2nd, 2011
7:39 am
I don’t use fireworks, I just fire my AK-47 straight up in the air. What is “laws of physics”?
SOWEGA
July 2nd, 2011
10:44 am
In our teens we would load up a car full of guys with cherry bombs etc and drive around at night tossing fireworks at people on the side of the road. One night the guy in the middle of the front seat tossed a cherry bomb out the driver’s window. Problem was the window was closed and the cherry bomb bounced back between the driver’s legs. It’s a wonder we weren’t all killed.
Good old days indeed!
Reality
July 2nd, 2011
10:48 am
As kids we also did anything and everything with every type of firework and firecracker including M-80s — all pretty much unsupervised.
I pretty much give my son free rein on black cats, bottle rockets, etc., initally under my supervision, but now at 13 he’s on his own. Today’s society has become way to PC and hand-holding. BTW, my son is also able to handle and shoot firearms, hunts, fishes,and is a boy scout. LET THEM BE KIDS!!!!!
katz
July 2nd, 2011
11:20 am
My kids play with fireworks, kill and dress their own food, and will not starve if caught in Donner pass over winter. The can shoot and sew too.
katz
July 2nd, 2011
11:22 am
Age? When they are old enough to have some impulse control. The should be supervised until they are 16.
Chappy
July 2nd, 2011
9:19 pm
Most of the pleasant reminisces are by people who were not injured in their youth. So celebrate freedom! And keep me free from being government mandated to pay for healthcare for the fools that do blow their hands off, and ALL their long years of welfare because they can’t work without hands.
4thtradition
July 3rd, 2011
4:58 pm
Took a ride with my son over to NC to get some real fireworks and do you know what we saw?..EVERY plate in the parking lot was from GA! from Gwinett to Fulton to Cobb and more..each LOADING up on boomers that would make Disney jealous!
We have been doing HUGE fireworks since the kids were little..with Dad being the expert of the high tech stuff and the kids using their “sparklers.” Now my kids are teenagers and help in setting up the display. They know the danger, they respect it and NEVER do we allow them to do any of them without supervision.
We will continue to enjoy them as a family..
4thtradition
July 3rd, 2011
5:00 pm
Sorry typo…we were in South Carolina getting the fireworks..along with 1/2 the state of GA!
I'm real
July 3rd, 2011
5:37 pm
My son is three so that is too young for me to allow him to handle fireworks. And by fireworks, I mean the loud, M80, bottle rockets, etc… type of fireworks.
If I had a sparkler, I would let him handle that only if I was there to supervise of course.
Money is real tight right now, and I prefer to spend it on things that will last longer than 5 seconds.
I live in a town-home and there really isn’t a safe place to launch rockets, etc… safely without catching trees on fire.
When I was growing up, I lived on over an acre of land and most of the trees (actually forest) where in the back of the yard and the front has minimal trees. Plus the houses were more spread out, compared to here where more houses are close together.
It was perfect firecracker atmosphere!!!
For now, I will leave the fireworks to professionals.
I hope that by the time my son is six, I will have a bigger yard for our firework enjoyment.
I'm real
July 3rd, 2011
5:40 pm
sorry for the typos, I mean were in the back of the yard
Man I miss lighting up fireworks *sniff*
none your buzz nuss
July 4th, 2011
4:39 pm
okay here is my firework story, well me sum of my family and friends where shooting off fireworks. i was done shoting them (my tumb was hurting).so my uncle was putting a shell in the tube to shoot it off (it was one of those big fireworks) so me my friend brooke were standing there watching the boys light them and the firework falls over…… shoots right at me and my friend aaahhhhhhhhhhhh…… sparks hit our legs it hurt (boys are dumb)>
Mark
July 5th, 2011
8:57 am
Absolutely. My 4 year old kept wanting to participate in the lighting of the fireworks. He was whining the entire night. I finally gave in. Let him light an M80. Lil’ bugger froze up and never threw it so it went off in his hand. He cried and cried. I think it scared him more than anything. We took a look at it again this morning after we all sobered up. My wife thinks maybe we should have taken him to the hospital to have his hand stitched up but she wasn’t in no condition to drive last night either. I learned my lesson though. Make sure at least one adult is sober enough to drive in case there is a fireworks emergency!