So we celebrated the 4th last weekend - spent it with the fam - and it was Grrrreat!(TM). This was the first year that Tatertot really got it. Last year, she was too little to really understand and too little for me to attempt to keep her up for the big nighttime show. But this year she was the perfect age: she's too young to try to do light-em-up works by herself so I didn't have to worry about her running around with a punk, but she's old enough to enjoy them. She understands "HOT" and was more than happy to stomp on some poppers. And the look on her face when she saw that first big nighttime blossom of explody fire? Priceless. Watching her reaction was more entertaining than watching the fireworks.
The other kids were great, too. I saw one minor burn and a lot of fighting, but they behaved themselves for the most part. That's the thing with the 4th - teaching kids to respect fire, follow directions and that there are consequences to their actions. If you're not careful, you will get hurt. Wear closed toe shoes, not flip flops. Listen when I tell you to slow down and walk, don't run. Keep the damn punk away from the giant bag of fireworks! It's a rite of passage, and in my opinion, it does kids good - great lessons with minimal (hopefully) impact. A few small burns are worth the lessons in taking care, being aware of your surroundings and respect for fire and dangerous explody things.
So I was understandably disappointed by the report on the news this morning that an EIGHT year old was caught (gasp!) lighting ILLEGAL fireworks out in Joco. The horror! What irresponsible parents! They had a picture of said illegal items as well - wow, there's all the stuff that we were just lighting off last night. That my 4-year old nephew was lighting off last night. Yeah, stuff that you'd find at your local tent - we're not talking crazy home made fire bombs that are unpredictable and might take off a hand or bigass professional grade exploders. No, these were fountains and Black Cats and sparklers.
Are you kidding me? As crazy great aunt Shua says, "A healthy immune system is a challenged immune system". Same goes for everything - if you challenge yourself you get stronger. If you protect and shelter and hand everything to your kids on a silver platter you create soft, entitled, spoiled adults who have no idea how to cope and function in a real world situation. Don't just warn about the dangers of fire, take them to a bonfire, let them get close and roast a marshmallow. Then show them how to work a fire extinguisher. This culture of debilitating fear that we're living in isn't doing anybody any good.
Personally, I can't wait till Tatertot is big enough to hold the punk on her own. Teaching her to respect fire and dangerous explody things will be awesome - and I can't wait to see her face when I teach her how to write her name in the air with a sparkler. I'll just have to make sure I have some ice and lots of kisses for the little sparkler burns.
