Would You Let a 2 Year Old Have a Sparkler?

[FlightlessDuck]

They are not made to be held by anyone. You are supposed to put them into the ground and then light them.

I'm not saying this isn't true... but I've never heard this.

 

[slo]

I didn't have my 2yr old hold one, but I wouldn't be against it if it was long enough to take a cute picture, then take it away.
I absolutely wouldn't allow my 2yr old to have one just for fun.
I hold my breath when my kids now have one, because they aren't paying attention and I'm always worried they are going to burn themselves or set their hair on fire. I don't say anything though because they are old enough to know how to hold a sparkler.

 

[slo]

I saw on facebook a neat way for kids to hold sparklers.....

Take a Silo cup, punch a hole in the end, stick the sparkler though it, and the child's hand holds the sparkler from inside the cup.
Then there's a little shield between the sparker and the hand.
I thought this was pretty cool.

 

[Lilliputian]

Sparklers burn at the same temperature as blow torches, so if you wouldn't hand the child a blow torch, he shouldn't have a sparkler.

That's my standard for my kids, though. I realize that other people let their children hold sparklers, and it's up to them. A few will end up in the ER, but most won't.

 

[HM]

I imagine the picture was just that, a pose with a prop.

 

[Minnesota!]

My DS will be 3 on Friday. He did a ton of sparklers by himself on the 4th. He also did them last year. My DH lights them and then hands it to him. He stands in the driveway, waves it around then puts it in the bucket of water then comes running back for more. If he was not holding them properly, waving them in his or someone elses face or clothes, then they would be taken away. But he was absolutely fine or maybe my kids are just really coordinated because they had no issues holding them safely. My DS9 did 2-4 at a time with no issues (we had the multi color packs and he liked doing one of each color). It is a part of childhood I refuse to take away from them and compared to the sparklers we had as kids, they are pretty wimpy nowadays.

Once again, I am proving to be a horrible DIS parent.

If you are, I am there, too. Of course I would let my 2 year old hold one. I wouldn't be far away, but we always did them with the kids (in MN, they are about the only legal thing ). They last about 6 seconds, you hold onto the little wire part and wave them around.

I'm not saying this isn't true... but I've never heard this.

Me, either. Sparklers are to wave around and spell your name or, in the case of a 2 year old, spell C-A-T, with.

 

[undertheradar]

I'm a "mean" parent, my kids, ages 24, 19, and 17, have never used sparklers. We don't do fireworks in our house.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

No

 

[emer95]

When my daughter was 3, my mother in law gave her a sparkler despite my protests. I said no, and MIL gave her one anyway when I turned away. She got a serious burn on her arm, and I was livid. Who gives a 3 year old a stick of fire?!? The general consensus at the party was that I was overreacting. Grr... 12 years later and my blood pressure still rises when I think of it.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Just to clarify it wasn't just one picture either, it was a series of a dozen, no gloves or adults holding his hand or anything.

 

[Dizlvr]

If you are, I am there, too. Of course I would let my 2 year old hold one. I wouldn't be far away, but we always did them with the kids (in MN, they are about the only legal thing ). They last about 6 seconds, you hold onto the little wire part and wave them around.

I'm right there with you guys, I don't see a problem with it if there is proper instructions and supervision.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

No.

 

[Goofy_Disney_Dad]

Yes, I would.

 

[SEA333]

One of my friend's posted pics from her family's 4th of July party on FB. They included pictures of their two year old holding his own sparkler. That just seems like a huge safety risk to me.

I wouldn't even hold one myself, so no.

But I am a freak about fireworks - I love the ones that the professionals put on and I can sit a safe distance away and ooh and ahh over them, but I absolutely hate the ones that people buy (which are mostly illegal in Illinois) and light off themselves. I attribute this to the following:

1. When I was about 6 or 7, my dad and uncles were lighting bottle rockets. Me and two of my sisters were outside with them. My mom and baby sister were inside sleeping. One rocket went awry and hit our house. My uncle, in an off the cuff comment, laughed that had it "been just a couple inches higher it would have hit the wood trim and burned the house down". Likely not, but as a small child being afraid of house fires to begin with (our neighbors house burned down the year before) and knowing my mom and sister were in the house, it scared the bejezus out of me.

2. When I was a teen at my boyfriend's house on the 4th, his 2-3 year old niece was given a sparkler and she burned the heck out of her arm. It was a nasty 3rd degree burn. She still has the scar to this day (I married this boyfriend 10 years later! LOL).

My kids hate those sparklers, so they won't hold them either. Probably because I never let them when they were little.

Oh well!

But I don't think that the parent of the kid in the picture was a bad parent....I let my 11 year old have an Instragram account, so who am I to judge! I'm not the one taking the kid to the ER if they are burned, just like that parent is not the one who has to deal with my DD tumbling down a slippery slope of delinquency for knowing I checked a box saying they account holder was over over 13 so she could get the social media account, so I'm sure we will both be busy with our own kids' problems to worry much about the other's.

 

[NFLDERS]

NO!

 

[pumpkinmomma]

I saw on facebook a neat way for kids to hold sparklers.....

Take a Silo cup, punch a hole in the end, stick the sparkler though it, and the child's hand holds the sparkler from inside the cup.
Then there's a little shield between the sparker and the hand.
I thought this was pretty cool.

I would not recommend trying this. Those cups are not heat resistant, in fact they melt fairly easily. The heat from the sparkler could very well melt the plastic and cause it to stick to your child's skin.

 

[fly girl]

2 years old is really little, like PP's if I did concede I would likely hold it with them.

But my dd held one at 5 years old and I had no problem with it. She loved writing her name, as I did at that age.

 

[kamik86]

No I wouldn't...

Although that is because sparklers are illegal in my state and as such I have only used one once. I may feel differently if I had any real knowledge of how safe or not they were.

 

[Dizlvr]

The safe and sane sparklers? Probably. The kind we had when I was a kid? No way.

LOL!

There were "safe and sane" sparklers at a party I was at on the 4th. Good grief. Very lame and tame. Very.

So, maybe in this thread we are talking about two different things? The kinds they sell in states where the big booming fireworks are legal (such as Wisconsin) are very different than what you can buy, legally, in Minnesota. Seriously, the "sparks" went no farther than 1 inch from the stick. It was almost like a glowing stick.

I think you may be right. I grew up using the safe and tame ones, and just last night we used up what we had from the 4th, and even let a 3 year old have their own.
One year at Lake George we got the kids "sparklers" that looked different than the ones we had ever used. They ended up being like mini blow torches with fire just shooting out the end. We thought it was hysterical that these were called sparklers because they were not what we thought they were going to be. I probably wouldn't let a 2 year old run around with one of them, but if he's just standing there pointing it away from himself and anyone else with me right there, not a huge deal IMO.

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

DD would have been terrified at that age. She is typically more cautious than I am. I don't think she held one herself until she was 7 or 8. At 12, she still won't light one herself.