By Mike Maddock At a July 4th party this past weekend, a friend of mine remarked, “We spend 364 days a year telling our children

not to play with fire, then, when July 4th rolls around, we give them tiny blowtorches and tell them to go have fun.”

He made this remark as about ten of our children were running through the yard, literally weaving through each other, as they carried at least one sparkler in each little hand. Sparklers seem innocent enough, but these tiny sticks of metal burn at about 1200–degrees. That’s less than half the heat of some blowtorches, but still enough to do some serious damage. A match is about the same temperature as a sparkler, but we don’t let the little ones square dance with them. Not so coincidentally, a pediatrician friend at this same party said his doctor buddy who works at a local emergency room states that July 4th is his busiest day of the year.

Our need to shelter and protect our kids can take a back seat to grilled hot dogs, tangy barbecue, and shiny explosives.

“You want do what, Honey? You want to see how many lit sparklers you can hold in one hand while you play leap frog with your friends? … Sure, go ahead! Here’s a lighter. Now, go play while I finish my ribs! Mmm–mmm!”

I guess our parental instincts go away on some holidays, but those mental breaks aren’t just relegated to the red, white, and blue ones. Orange and black ones can be a bit confusing, too.

My kids really need a good excuse for my wife and me to allow them to leave our yard. They can’t stay out past dark, and they are never allowed to talk to strangers. Most times we’d prefer they just play in the safety of our fenced–in backyard, but when Halloween rolls around, we dress them up, hand them a flashlight, send them out into the black of night, and tell them to knock on random doors to beg for Snickers bars. To top it off, when they finally return home with bags full of goodies, we give them permission to gorge themselves on the chocolate and candy we spend the vast majority their lives hiding from them. I can see where kids might get confused.

It’s not just the Holidays either. I imagine some sports can be a bit troublesome to young minds as well.

“Ok, Junior! Here’s a small, hard ball. I want you to throw it towards you sister.”

“Won’t she get hurt if I throw a ball at her?”

“Oh, no! I gave her a metal bat to hit it back at you.”

“But you said not to do that when we were playing the other day.”

“This is different, Son. Y’all had sticks and ball of aluminum foil. This is called baseball. It’s America’s pastime.”

“But you called it dangerous and irresponsible the other day.”

“Well, it’s not today! Be quiet and chunk that ball at your sister!”

Thankfully, a kid’s job is not to question, and if children get to play with red hot sticks of metal for one day, they’re usually pretty happy about it.