Just don't do anything and you'll be SAFE!

I'm just rolling my eyes at the lady I hear on the radio saying (paraphrase) "Sparklers are six times as hot as boiling oil! You wouldn't give your kids a pot of boiling oil to play with, would you? So don't give them sparklers."

There are a few key differences between sparklers and boiling oil.

1. When boiling oil hits your skin, it stays on long enough to do serious damage. When sparklers hit your skin, they usually immediately fall off.
2. Kids are unlikely to stick an entire limb in the 1800 degree part of a sparkler.
   
3. Boiling oil is nowhere near as fascinating as a sparkler, so kids are likely to take their eyes off the pot of oil and accidentally spill it.

Now, I'm all for fireworks safety. And I'm all for teaching your kids not to hold anything that's exploding or likely to explode, to not light fires near flammable objects, etc. But come on, sparklers? You hold their sparkler hand while they wave them, if they're young. You show the older kids how to use them and watch them carefully, you put out the bucket of water, and they have loads of fun. But what do the nannies suggest? Putting the sparklers in the lawn and lighting them on fire. Now that's a great way to start a fire in the dead grass in your lawn, plus you won't be able to remove the hot sparklers and put them in a water bucket until they cool down. I'd rather have the sparkler in the hand of someone who can control where it goes and put it immediately in a bucket of water.

How long do you think it's gonna be before the police start arresting people for child abuse for letting them hold sparklers? I'm taking bets. Don't believe it'll ever be considered abuse? How many years has it taken since the inception of carseats for it to be anathema to let your four-foot tall eight-year-old ride without a carseat?