children experimenting with fire.

[Cameo]

I have dealt with this many times and can tell you that it needs to be addressed as quickly as possible. Did your fire department have a program? Most do have a juvenile fire starters program.

Just a couple of weeks a go we had two house fires back to back. Both were caused by children playing with fire. On was just lighting random things and the other house was 3 kids spray painting there name on the side of a house and lighting the paint, which didnt pan out so well for them.

If you would like I can get some printed material for you to look at. Just PM me your adde and I can send it out.

I am not denying for a minute that fire is not interesting but its a problem that needs to be addressed while they are young. Some studies show that young pyro's continue to have there fascination into there adulthood which could obviously cause problems later.

It seems you doing the right things.
Good Job

if you need anything dont hesitate to contact me
Curt

Thanks... they did have a program and she did some visiting.... But i am still interesting in the info will pm you the addy...
I really appreciate it.

[B.A.M.]

You could light one of the kid's toys on fire and see if she will play with it agian . Just kidding but i say under your supervision let her play with fire until she gets really bored with it.

[fire1811]

but i say under your supervision let her play with fire until she gets really bored with it.

only problem with this is normally when people get bored with arson they move on to lighting bigger things like houses and buildings

[kosmo]

only problem with this is normally when people get bored with arson they move on to lighting bigger things like houses and buildings

Or they enlist in the military and go EOD. If you can avoid getting yourself blown up and youre good enough to actually graduate the school, its a darn cool job.

[Maksimus54]

I like the idea of showing the child fire responsibility. Show them how to safely make a camp fire and maintain it, but make sure they understand the dangers and that they can only do so under parental supervision. A lot like teaching kids about guns. Its how I learned from my father and I never even dreamed of toying with fire or guns. But I do know how to safely operate either of them.

[tribalman]

i think it would be a good idea to get your son to go with to the programs, just to continue to push the point with him.

[Cameo]

i think it would be a good idea to get your son to go with to the programs, just to continue to push the point with him.

never even thought of that.. looks like boy child and i have a field trip on monday.. thanks.

[tropical_fishy]

I'm by no means very experienced with this sort of thing, but depending how old your children are, I'd say that trying to repress this urge to play with fire could be just as, if not more, dangerous than educating them and letting them play around a little. Once my uncle started a bonfire in the backyard of a house we were staying in just so my cousin and I could burn stuff. Granted, this WAS in West Virginia and he WAS standing there throwing hairspray, lighter fluid and gas on the fire. Perhaps not the best example. But watching my drunk uncle be an idiot was enough of a deterrant for me.

If your kids are...3, 4, even 5 or 6, I'd say let them watch you use fire responsibly. Any older, I'd say it's time ot start treating them like kids that are growing up and need to learn the consequences of their actions, An 8 year old should know what she was doing was wrong. She should know cause and effect. Make her pay for the carpet, but also, make her learn about fire. If she's old enough, make her write a mini-research paper. THAT would be pain for a child during the summer.

[RazorMonkey]

I really wouldn't show her anything like burn victims or anything... Really... That's just... Cruel... And can be majorly traumatizing at such a young age... That's something that'll stick with her for years and years and possibly make her resent you in the future... Make her pay for the rug in whole... Don't give her any allowance until she pays it off by doing chores... LOTS of chores... Make it as difficult for her to do as possible... Don't give her ANY money until she pays it off... That will hopefully get the point across without traumatizing her... I don't know how you feel about getting parenting advice from a 17 year old, but I deal with kids a lot, and I can't even imagine showing a young girl graphic pictures like that... Just make her pay... And make it clear that if she's ever caught doing it again, there will be MAJOR consequences... And follow through with that threat if she does... If you're spanking her still, give her a big old spanking and make sure it hurts... If you're grounding her now, ground her for an obscene amount of time... At least a month or two... She will definitely hate it for the moment and it will teach her the lesson about playing with fire, but she won't resent you when she's 16 for grounding her when she was 8... But showing her burn victims is NOT THE WAY TO GO... Consider what I'm saying, please... Just don't show her the pictures or the people...

[fire1811]

Showing children burn center victims is not cruel, its a VERY good possibility of what the outcome of playing with fire can be. I agree that burn centers are not fun to go to but I have seen young children there plenty of times. They even had young children there doing commuity service because of there fire starting habits. They had to spend there time helping other burn victims.

As for having the child pay for the carpet by not giving her allowance. At ten dollars a week that would take almost 6 years to pay off(3G's for the room) I doubt that any parent could hold an allowance that long, even with extra chores.

You could also contact your local fire department or police department and I am quite sure they will be very happy to have her do some community service time. There is always something that needs to be cleaned Every saturday would be a good start.

Letting a child who has already had a problem with fire experiment more with it even while being superrvised is and extremely bad idea. This would be just throwing more logs on the fire(no pun intended). Hell im still fascinated with fires and I see it more then most.

[sbpyro]

I really wouldn't show her anything like burn victims or anything... Really... That's just... Cruel... And can be majorly traumatizing at such a young age. Make her pay for the rug in whole... Don't give her any allowance until she pays it off by doing chores... LOTS of chores... Make it as difficult for her to do as possible... Don't give her ANY money until she pays it off... That will hopefully get the point across without traumatizing her... I don't know how you feel about getting parenting advice from a 17 year old, but I deal with kids a lot, and I can't even imagine showing a young girl graphic pictures like that... Just make her pay... And make it clear that if she's ever caught doing it again, there will be MAJOR consequences... And follow through with that threat if she does... If you're spanking her still, give her a big old spanking and make sure it hurts... If you're grounding her now, ground her for an obscene amount of time... At least a month or two... She will definitely hate it for the moment and it will teach her the lesson about playing with fire, but she won't resent you when she's 16 for grounding her when she was 8... But showing her burn victims is NOT THE WAY TO GO... Consider what I'm saying, please... Just don't show her the pictures or the people...

No cruel is taking one the child's favorite toys and lighting it on fire. I'm not suggesting taking the child to parts where the ppl are still in intensive care. But to the place where the wounds have healed a bit but it would still show the permanent scarring that burns will cause.
But back to the subject since your child does have an allowance definately make her pay for the damages to the carpet. As for fire exstiguishers all houses should have at least one (and I don't mean one of those portable ones) go talk to your local fire dept about what they recommend and get trained to use one.

[SCpoloRicker]

Just going to chip in that this has been a very positive discussion.

I'd listen to the fireman, personally, but others input has been mature and well-thought.

/Gotta love a semi-pertinent Maddox link

[Cow hunter]

after lighting urdels on fire u dont really wanna do it anymore............. i learned the hard way

[slade]

making her pay for the rug is a bit harsh, but acceptable, i guess. but telling your kids that fire is very powerful and very dangerous and always keeping them from it is only going to make them really curious, its just encouraging them to experiment. let them have experience with fire and learn responsibility, while you supervise. when i was little my parents always burned wood and scrap that was around the yard, in a huge pile. they gave me jobs like clearing a huge area around the fire of leaves and anything flammable, and soaking the ground with water, carefully starting the fire with matches or putting the fire out with the hose, and making sure all the embers were out. its better to teach your kids responsibility than just to stay completely away.

oh, and on a related subject this summer i took an engineering course and we went on a tour of a fire protection engineering lab. it was interesting, we saw a lot of fires start in mock rooms, and started a trashcan fire to set off a sprinkler. oh, and the sprinkler didnt even put out the fire, since it was directly below it, because it sprayed in a cone shape. the sprinklers are really to wet everything and keep the fire from spreading, rather than put out a fire. and also, the person there told us that a conventional CO2 fire extinguisher can only reliably put out a fist-sized fire. any larger and it cant necessarily put it out.

[Trick]

let them watch Rescue Me on FX...

well i guess just show them the part where the skin falls off, and the kids die... the rest is not really for a child to watch.

anyway, just be sure they both know how to use a fire extinguisher and keep enough of them around.

I'm sorry, but I just thought this post was awesome. Emotionally scarring images of graphic burn injuries and children dying is fine for my 8 year old's not fully developed psyche, but as soon as sexuality and foul language hits the TV, TURN IT OFF!