{"id":440,"date":"2016-10-17T00:01:21","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T06:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/?p=440"},"modified":"2016-10-17T21:29:59","modified_gmt":"2016-10-18T03:29:59","slug":"dont-play-with-matches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/2016\/10\/17\/dont-play-with-matches\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Play With Matches!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost since the first friction-ignited matches were invented in 1826, I\u2019m sure parents have been warning their kids about matches. This weekend I learned that it\u2019s reached the ridiculous point where kids will<\/em> not<\/em> or cannot<\/em> use matches.<\/p>\n

Originally, parental warnings might have been more to do with the dangers of white phosphorous than fire. These \u201cLucifers\u201d were not only poisonous (and therefore potential murder \u201cweapons\u201d) but also the cause of a whole new industrial disease known as \u201cphossy jaw\u201d. Feel free to search the interweb for pictures of the disease’s effects\u2026<\/p>\n

It took worker action (not something that happened at a drop of the hat in the 19th century!) to get manufacturers to transition to non-poisonous but more expensive red phosphorous. Finland banned white phosphorous matches in 1872; the UK didn\u2019t ban them until 1910, and Canada left it until 1914. The USA taxed<\/em> white phosphorous matches out of existence.<\/p>\n

Safety matches (created by separating the reactive ingredients between the head of the match and the striking surface) were developed between 1844 and 1855, pre-dating the strike-anywhere red phosphorous variety by many years.<\/p>\n

But just because safety matches were called safety matches didn\u2019t mean they were safe in any<\/em> hands. Children (boys especially) have this magnetic attraction to fire, and matches make great toys, so they played with them.<\/p>\n

The fire engine was invented shortly thereafter (kidding.)<\/p>\n

And so homelessness may well have superseded phossy jaw in the minds of concerned parents everywhere. \u201cDon\u2019t play with matches\u201d became the slogan for many a safety campaign.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2016.<\/p>\n

I volunteer with the Cub Scouts, and at camp this weekend we were teaching Cubs how to light a fire without<\/em> matches. Conversation among the leaders turned to matches, and one of them revealed that in his personal experience, some kids these days either will not or cannot use matches. Parents have been so focused on the \u201cDon\u2019t play\u201d mantra that they forgot that matches are actually useful tools, just like guns. (But that\u2019s another topic<\/a>!)<\/p>\n

Why parents don\u2019t warn their kids about the perils of playing with flint-and-steel or bow-and-drill I\u2019ll never know.<\/p>\n

In some cases, kids have taken the message on board so literally that when they\u2019re introduced to a situation in which matches are used as a tool (to light a cooking fire for example), they refuse to try. In other cases, kids don\u2019t know how to strike a match, and when they\u2019re shown how, they\u2019re scared to try in case that nasty ol\u2019 flame at the end of the stick jumps up and burns them.<\/p>\n

What next? Banning the use of corkscrews because they\u2019re sharp and pointy, or can openers because they\u2019re capable of cutting through sheet steel? We don\u2019t prevent our kids from using knives to eat with, yet knives are sharp, pointy, dangerous things.<\/p>\n

Please\u2014among all the insanity of making our world a riskless society, can we teach kids responsible use of some of these innocuous implements?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost since the first friction-ignited matches were invented in 1826, I\u2019m sure parents have been warning their kids about matches. This weekend I learned that it\u2019s reached the ridiculous point where kids will not or cannot use matches. Originally, parental warnings might have been more to do with the dangers of white phosphorous than fire. These \u201cLucifers\u201d were not only… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[210,208,207,211,212,209],"class_list":["post-440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rant","tag-lucifers","tag-matches","tag-parenting","tag-phossy-jaw","tag-safety-matches","tag-toys-and-tools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}