Are fireworks treated differently now than when you were a kid?

[Mierin]

Maybe the girls that we grew up with saw us doing these things....and became moms.

But I was doing them too, and my mom saw a girl get severely burned by fireworks when she was a kid, and yet she was okay with us playing with them as kids. Also at the party I go to it’s usually the dads freaking out. 

 

[teachercd]

Hope you're talking about the BB and not his eye.  But, if that's the way you lose your eye, at least you got a good story.

We didn't have pump BB guns, we had the kind that you c$%ked like a Henry rifle.  BB gun wars were pretty dang fun.  I did it with my son when he was little only used air soft guns.  We have a pretty long tree grove and would each start on opposite ends and sneak towards each other.  

Ha...yeah the BB!  His eye was okay...the doctor said if the BB was any lower he would have lost his eye.

 

[BigRedBuster]

But I was doing them too, and my mom saw a girl get severely burned by fireworks when she was a kid, and yet she was okay with us playing with them as kids. Also at the party I go to it’s usually the dads freaking out. 

The Dads are freaking out because they know how much they are going to be in trouble when they get home if they allow the kid to get injured.

OR.....

I guess looking at it the other direction, the Dad's remember how much it hurts to have a fire cracker go off in your hand and don't want their kid to experience it.  Because....that F'ing hurts.

Maybe a combo of both.

I will also say that the fireworks that are available to kids nowadays are much bigger than what I played with as a kid.

 

[Mierin]

The Dads are freaking out because they know how much they are going to be in trouble when they get home if they allow the kid to get injured.

OR.....

I guess looking at it the other direction, the Dad's remember how much it hurts to have a fire cracker go off in your hand and don't want their kid to experience it.  Because....that F'ing hurts.

Maybe a combo of both.

I will also say that the fireworks that are available to kids nowadays are much bigger than what I played with as a kid.

But the moms were there too... One of the dads was nervous about his 13 year old twirling a sparkler around.

 

[Calvin]

I'm a parent.  I get being protective.  But I thought it was important for my kid to get his own bumps and bruises.  Guess that might not be common anymore.  Too bad.  

And sparklers are one of the first "fireworks" kids get to play with.  Pretty much as soon as they were old enough to hold it.  

 

[huKSer]

I feel that sparklers are the worst for little kids - too hot.  There is an alternate one with a wood stick that is much safer.

I would prefer little ones to do the little tank things or small fountains than the metal thermite sparklers

 

[BigRedBuster]

But the moms were there too... One of the dads was nervous about his 13 year old twirling a sparkler around.

I'm being somewhat facetious.  I honestly can't help you.  It's possible that the dad's you seeing flipping out didn't grow up like you and me.  I took the same attitude as Calvin.  I let my kids get there own bumps and bruises and I had two girls and a boy.  They learned early that there's a difference between hurt and injured.....and, bruises can be cool.  

My daughter still teases me about when I told her to stay in the batters box because the ball wasn't going to hurt if it hit her.  After all, it's called a "softball" for a reason.  The next time at bat, she did just that, only to have it hit her hard enough it left stitch marks on her arm.  We laughed about it even at the time.  

I was also the guy in Iowa who put his 4 year old son on a 1,100 lb horse and told him to go have fun....only to have the neighbors question my sanity.  I laughed at them when they expressed their concern.

 

[Mierin]

I'm being somewhat facetious.  I honestly can't help you.  It's possible that the dad's you seeing flipping out didn't grow up like you and me.  I took the same attitude as Calvin.  I let my kids get there own bumps and bruises and I had two girls and a boy.  They learned early that there's a difference between hurt and injured.....and, bruises can be cool.  

My daughter still teases me about when I told her to stay in the batters box because the ball wasn't going to hurt if it hit her.  After all, it's called a "softball" for a reason.  The next time at bat, she did just that, only to have it hit her hard enough it left stitch marks on her arm.  We laughed about it even at the time.  

I was also the guy in Iowa who put his 4 year old son on a 1,100 lb horse and told him to go have fun....only to have the neighbors question my sanity.  I laughed at them when they expressed their concern.

But they did. One of them is my brother. And just based on the # of super protective parents and how things were before, a lot of the protective parents had to have grown up in a less protective environment. That’s why it’s so weird and why I think there has to be an outside force (like TV) involved.

Off topic: fastpitch softball is harder for fielders than baseball. It’s way easier to catch a baseball in my experience. I didn’t have any trouble catching softballs either but I just thought I’d mention it . Ground balls may be easier with softball though. I imagine a baseball moves faster on the ground.

With batting I assume baseball is harder. The ball is smaller and it goes faster, however the distance from mound to plate us 50% further. I wonder what the time difference is on how much time you have to look at the ball between the 2. I’ll never forget, we played this girl at age 12 or 13 who I swear could pitch it 60mph. I think we got 2 people on base. I wonder if they ever lost a game. 

 

[Calvin]

Moiraine, I think you're probably right about the outside influences causing parents to be overprotective.  When all they see in the news, social media, etc. is horror stories of kids getting hurt or killed, they tend to overreact so it doesn't happen to them.  

A fastpitch softball, I'm told by a friend who played college ball, gets on the hitter faster than a baseball, because, as you mentioned, the mound is so much closer.  

 

[JJ Husker]

And sparklers are one of the first "fireworks" kids get to play with.  Pretty much as soon as they were old enough to hold it.  

The ironic thing is sparklers are probably one of the most dangerous items and account for more burn injuries than other fireworks. They're basically molten metal at about 2000 degrees.

 

[The Dude]

The kids at my neighborhood block party seemed to mostly have all the same freedom and restrictions we had when I was a kid.  You didn't see any kids lighting artillery shells, but that's pretty much always been the case in my experience.

It's dumb you can't buy fireworks in Lincoln until the 3rd.

 

[Calvin]

The ironic thing is sparklers are probably one of the most dangerous items and account for more burn injuries than other fireworks. They're basically molten metal at about 2000 degrees.

Very true.  I think some parents, me included, thought that lighting wicks were more dangerous at the time.  

 

[JJ Husker]

But they did. One of them is my brother. And just based on the # of super protective parents and how things were before, a lot of the protective parents had to have grown up in a less protective environment. That’s why it’s so weird and why I think there has to be an outside force (like TV) involved.

Off topic: fastpitch softball is harder for fielders than baseball. It’s way easier to catch a baseball in my experience. I didn’t have any trouble catching softballs either but I just thought I’d mention it . Ground balls may be easier with softball though. I imagine a baseball moves faster on the ground.

With batting I assume baseball is harder. The ball is smaller and it goes faster, however the distance from mound to plate us 50% further. I wonder what the time difference is on how much time you have to look at the ball between the 2. I’ll never forget, we played this girl at age 12 or 13 who I swear could pitch it 60mph. I think we got 2 people on base. I wonder if they ever lost a game. 

I think there are all kinds of outside forces that have caused it. I mentioned a few earlier but there's also been many more cases of teachers and persons in a position of trust doing bad things. I suppose it's maybe as simple as population growth with a certain percentage of those people not necessarily being good ones. And also like BRB said, we know what we did as kids when we thought we were invincible. But now with experience we realize just how dangerous some of those things were. I wouldn't say I was an overprotective parent but I sure wasn't going to allow my kids to do some of the things I did.

As far as baseball and fast pitch softball, I don't think there is much difference in fielding or hitting. Sure little kids softball is simpler but I helped coach and filled in occasionally at practices when my daughter was playing competitive travel softball at 13-14 years old. The closer pitchers mound makes up for any lack of speed and there is just something about the underhand throwing motion that I found even more difficult than hitting a baseball. Of course I was a bit older and sort of out of playing shape but some of those girls could hit that ball and it sure didn't seem easier than what I remembered of playing baseball. Throwing a baseball was the only thing I found to be easier than softball.

 

[Mierin]

I think there are all kinds of outside forces that have caused it. I mentioned a few earlier but there's also been many more cases of teachers and persons in a position of trust doing bad things. I suppose it's maybe as simple as population growth with a certain percentage of those people not necessarily being good ones. And also like BRB said, we know what we did as kids when we thought we were invincible. But now with experience we realize just how dangerous some of those things were. I wouldn't say I was an overprotective parent but I sure wasn't going to allow my kids to do some of the things I did.

As far as baseball and fast pitch softball, I don't think there is much difference in fielding or hitting. Sure little kids softball is simpler but I helped coach and filled in occasionally at practices when my daughter was playing competitive travel softball at 13-14 years old. The closer pitchers mound makes up for any lack of speed and there is just something about the underhand throwing motion that I found even more difficult than hitting a baseball. Of course I was a bit older and sort of out of playing shape but some of those girls could hit that ball and it sure didn't seem easier than what I remembered of playing baseball. Throwing a baseball was the only thing I found to be easier than softball.

On the bolded, then why didn’t it happen with previous generations of parents? Kids were lighting fireworks when your parents were kids too. If it was a case of being careful because you don’t want your kids to do what you did, it wouldn’t be this sudden influx of overprotective parents. The cautiousness would’ve been the case with previous generations too.

Another theory popped into my head though. People were more likely to die younger in general back them. Maybe they were more focused on things like polio and figured if their kid survived that they’d let them have fun with other stuff.

I’m sure there are more cases of adults doing bad things but I think per capita it’s down from what I’ve read in the past. We think it happens at a higher rate because we hear about it more often.

 

[Enhance]

FWIW this article shows fireworks injuries steadily declined for several years but shot back up recently as states relaxed some restrictions.

Back in 1986, fireworks injured about 6.6 out of every 100,000 people. Since 1986, injuries have steadily fallen as government regulations made them safer. In 2008, the rate was down to 2.3 people.

But as states have relaxed restrictions, the injuries have started increasing again. The latest figures for 2017 show a rate of 4 people per 100,000.

In addition, there’s also a big gender divide in who suffers the most injuries. Men experienced about 70 percent of fireworks-related injuries for the one-month period from June 18 to July 18, 2017.

IMO I think a huge piece of this conversation is just general awareness of fireworks injuries or dangerous situations in general. When I was a kid, and even a teenager, I barely remember hearing about fireworks injuries. I'm not even sure my parents did much. But today, especially with the way social media is, everything gets so deeply discussed and over-analyzed. Some kid loses a hand, a parent sees it on Facebook, they see the comments/reactions, it shows up on local news and everywhere else, and it just blows up (no pun intended) into this big deal. This lends itself to behavior adjustments on behalf of the parents.

Graph from article showcasing fireworks injuries since 1980's.