to think the firefighter did;n' need to be quite so graphic with his fireworks warning

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DS2 (7yo) has had a presentation from a firefighter in assembly today, with the usual firework safety warnings.

He's been told he mustn't wear a nylon coat to the display, as "it will pull his skin off when it melts"

He's now saying he can't go unless I get him a new coat - he has a standard supermarket school coat and I can't even find an old one that's not nylon. He won't be anywhere near the fireworks FGS, but I find it difficult to make myself explain the CS2 that the firefighter was wrong/should be ignored

Were you there for the firefighters presentation? Do you know that these were his exact words or a 7 yr old boy's interpretation of his words?

I can imagine the firefighter has seen some pretty horrific sights of children being injured by fireworks and I do believe we need to be brutally honest with children about the dangers of various things - one of which is being around fireworks and how to stay safe.

If he had said "don't play with fireworks they may hurt your ickle wickle fingers and scratch your ickle wickle arms" then what sort of deterrant is that. The cold hard truth works with children. "Dont run out in the road a car may hit you and you'll be run over, squidged and could die" for example.

Harsh but true- remember having living daylights scare out of me at similar age about playing near railway bit can see point as it's not a joke .

A strog message at that age works wonders. It sounds like he filtered out the important message and only retained the scary bit.

The bit that said if you mess about with fireworks/ bonfires your coat could catch fire and nylon coats melt.

Does anyone else remeber the sparklers ad from the 80's?

I have never held a sparkler in my hand since!

As someone who had their coat set alight by a sparkler when she was a child i think you are being very unreasonable.

So, will none of your DCs be wearing a nylon anorak to the main town display?

He'll never forget it though, will he.

Will he have sparklers?

YABU.

just put him in a fleece or something as others have said, he is going to feel worried now if you put him in nylon, and wont be able to enjoy himself because of fear of what the fireman said so just let him wear something else

but thanks for posting i did not even know this about nylon, i will put my kids in something else for fireworks - if you didnt mention it here i think i would have just put ds1 in nylon coat without thinking of it

YABU - I once spent the week of bonfire night in a Children's burns unit with my LO and saw some sights that make the Fireman's warning sound like an understatement.

Its also why my DCs stay at home on bonfire night - we have fireworks, but only in our anally careful way and sparklers are absolutely verboten! LO wasn't burned on bonfire night it was an earlier accident, but its not something I would wish on anyone.

Genuine question - fleece is made of polyester, will it react any differently to nylon if it catches light? Won't most coats used at this time of year melt as opposed to burn?

Perhaps he was being graphic to avoid unnecessary accidents knowing he would be on strike on firework day. Surely better than blaming himself for the potential death of a child.

Fireman was spot on.

Ah I remember the days of shell suits and how it was what everyone wore to the fireworks regardless of the warnings

zukie, do you remember the 'Robbie' films about railway safety.

The very thought of them makes me want to wet myself in fear nearly thirty years on.

They were incredibly effective.

imo soft approch don't work, the more graphical the more the message hits home

It is a very real issue to a fireman.

YABU. Sorry. I know it's causing you some inconvenience, but his message was effective because of its bluntness. If he'd just said "Don't wear nylon because you might get hurt" or whatever, it would not have made an impact.

For those asking, I think the same thing does happen with fleece if it's polyester. I am not sure, though.

When I was a little girl my mother did some consumer safety work and took us to see some tests at a warehouse. The cotton nighties went 'woosh' in a split second when someone chucked a match at them. Very scary.

Only thing was, with typical small child awkwardness, what we took home was the message that fire safe nighties were great because they melted instead. So we used to stand by the fire trying to melt our nighties (fortunately we had the wit to hold them away from our skin while we did this).

Sadly the well-intentioned fire safety people had failed to realise that brominated flame retardents are a sodding health health hazard, hence today cotton nighties are back and it's down to parents to keep children away from flames.

SecretNutellaFix I am in my mid(ish!)30s and dread sparklers thanks to the TV campaign in the 80s. I have to go indoors when my kids have them or I'm just waiting for a terrible disaster.

I'm the same crossing railways in rural areas or playing with a kite anywhere near a plyon or telegraph pole. I also avoid reservoirs and leaving the iron on while I take a phone call in case it suddenly catches fire.

Most of my schooling was watching these bloody films. Explains why I'm a nervous wreck with a constant feeling of impending doom.

I'm not sure about fleece - somehow I wouldn't have thought it was as quickly flammable/melty - I just googled and all the warnings are about 'thin nylon'.