Survey: How Old Were Your Kids Before They Got to Hold Their Own Sparkler?

We live in California. Everything is illegal here, except for paying taxes. We can't have any fireworks. :(

4 yrs old while we were on a desert camping trip. We were 4 to 5 ft from everyone else and I was standing right next to him the entire time.

It really depends not only per age, but just the child.
My son is 5, but last year he could hold his own sparkler (with our supervision, and he wanted to) and was not afraid.
My daughter is 9, and last year she still didn't want to hold it.
Fine.

Happy 4th to you!

3 or 4. sounds crazy young now, but they were supervised, and loved it.
:) khairete
S.

As long as they know to hold them away from themselves and others.... seems like mine were 3 and 4, maybe younger even. Depends on the kid really, you dont want them to spaz at the last minute and do something goofy and dangerous with the sparkler.
Sparkler were much more awesome when I was a kid, they lasted longer.... they jacked them up while trying to make them safer. They were made of metal, not wood. I'm sure a lot of kids got burned back in the day.....

SD was 6 & was still a little scared. She said the sparkles that flew off of
the sparklers burnt her hand.

Not sure how old son will be. Much younger I'd expect. He likes to push
the envelope.

I'll report in after this week. ;)

my sons were 4. They were also allowed to do worms/snakes/smoke bombs, etc. & that's about the time they were allowed to do Roman Candles, too.

Bottle rockets & the rest came at about age 8 or so. My family has always been comfortable with fireworks. My almost 16yo was really looking forward to a new launcher he built....but we have a county-wide ban on fireworks this year. Bummer...

& each year, the dogs & I would sit on our front porch while the men/kids played. I will miss it.....so many good family memories thru the generations. :)

My older son tried one when he was four, and burned his finger. It was nothing bad, but he was a little scared for a while. I think he was over it by the time he was six. We usually bring them camping with us and bring them out for the campfire.

3

Which sounds very young, now... but at the time... he was totally ready.

Do you realize sparklers burn at 2000 degrees?
That can melt some metals and is as hot as a blow torch.
My Mom used one on a birthday cake once and the sparks actually melted spots into her glass table top.
People get upset at the thought of handing matches or a lighter to kids - everyone KNOWS playing with fire is bad.
Playing with guns is bad but playing with gun powder is somehow ok.
We hand sparklers to little kids and many of them get injured and scarred for life.
There is just a logical disconnect here with parents about fireworks and kids.
NO ONE NEEDS a trip to the emergency room on or near any holiday.

Yeah, a lot of kids got burned back in the day - and they still are.

In 2011:
There were an estimated 800 emergency department-treated injuries associated with firecrackers. Of these, an estimated 20 percent were associated with small firecrackers, 10 percent with illegal firecrackers, and 69 percent with firecrackers for which there was no specific information.

There were an estimated 1,100 emergency department-treated injuries associated with sparklers and 300 with bottle rockets.

The parts of the body most often injured were hands and fingers (an estimated 46 percent); eyes (an estimated 17 percent); head, face, and ears (an estimated 17 percent); and legs (an estimated 11 percent).

More than half of the emergency department-treated injuries were burns. Burns were the most common injury to all parts of the body, except the eyes, where contusions, lacerations, and foreign bodies in the eyes occurred more frequently.

Most patients were treated at the emergency department and then released. An estimated 12 percent of patients were treated and transferred to another hospital or admitted to the hospital.

it was 94 here today. Humidity wasn't TOO bad - about 40% - so really not bad - we had some GREAT thunderstorms and rain!!! this evening!!!

My daughter was 4 - she was a tad mature or at least understood the dangers of it.

My boys? I think they were both five. But we weren't far away!!

My kids were very young, maybe 3. It was in good fun.

But..... Our local restaurant used to put one on a birthday cake for each customer. Copying that idea, my friend did the same at home. We all sang Happy Birthday as she lit the sparkler. A tiny sparkling piece flew off and burnt through her flooring! Lots of fire extinguishing. A party we will never forget. :)

Now this was a metal sparkler, so I don't know about any other kind. But given that display of the danger, I would discourage holding sparklers in anyone's hand. A very happy and safe 4th to all!

My son is five and my answer is "not yet". :) He's also a little lost in the clouds at times, and could get distracted. Painfully distracted.

Our daughter was 4.

She had never been afraid of them, but we had some neighbors and their child was terrified of them till she was 6..

Happy 4th of July to you and yours Ephie!

I believe my kids held sparklers for the first time when they were around 4?

This year they are 8, 6 & 4 and this will be the 1st year for my 4y/o daughter but I am guessing she is not gonna want to do it...but my boys are gonna be all over it!

We did it as kids very young. This was the routine: the family had hola hoops that were placed on the ground a distance away from each other, each child had to stay within the boundries of the hola hoop to do the sparkler, they also had several buckets of water to place the used ones in.

Have a fun and safe day.

M

We let my DD hold one last year at 3 1/2. We were right there with her, and it was a LONG one (wrapped in hot pink paper--maybe other colors on it too), not the short metal ones. When it got a little more than half way down we took it so it wouldn't burn her. Not that it would have, but we just felt it was getting too close. She's a super cautious kid anyways, so we weren't worried she'd start running around with it waving it in people's faces or anything ;) hehee

Ephie,
I would sure love to send you some of this HEAT! lol

I can't remember, but my nephew screamed with fright when fireworks were even mentioned a full year after his dad's hair caught on fire because of a sparkler. I think he was 3 at the time it happened, and a year later was still freaked by it.

Dawn

My son held his own for the first time this year. He is three and a half, and we bought the huge ones that burn quite a ways from you, and the sparks can't even reach your hands. It was really fun!

EDIT: They're called Giant Morning Glories or something like that.

My kids are now 3 and 4.5 and just this year I am going to let them try sparklers. My pediatrician friend just told me about a great idea she saw on pinterest. Poke a hole in the bottom center of a plastic solo cup and thread the sparkler through it. The cup goes over the child's hand so sparks that fly back will not burn their forearms. Just beware, if you buy red solo cups, you will find yourself humming Toby Keith's song, Red Solo Cup, for the rest of the day! LOL! Have a great 4th of July, everyone! Proceed to party! ;-)

My kids are 8 and 10. I never buy them. I guess I'm no fun, but they don't ask for them, and I'm with B -- they're terribly dangerous. Yes, I held them when I was a kid, but I also sat on my grandfather's lap while he drove 60 miles an hour down the highway, sat in the back seat with no seat belt, and roamed for hours with my parents having no idea where I was -- all things I would never let happen today. Once we know things are dangerous, I can't see continuing to do them, just because we did in the past.

my kids weren't fond of the sparks flying on their hands. we rubber-banded the sparkler to a wooden spatula so that they had more distance between the hands and the sparks. i think my daughters were 4 and 6.