To think a penknife isn't suitable for 10-year-old DS?

[loobs2]

Our son has included a penknife on hie xmas wish-list and whilst DH thinks it an ideal stocking-filler I can't see the point, nor am I sure it's appropriate for him. None of his friends has one, nor is he in the Scouts...nor even engaged in the kind of pursuits a penknife might come in handy for! DH says it's one of those things active young boys just like to have, and he himself had one by the age of 10...

Mine are allowed a penknife for their 10th birthdays, it's a right of passage. We teach them to use it properly though.

I'm sure the Mum of the lad who threatened mine in the school playground felt the same. She's a lovely lady tbf. That was a "rite of passage" gift too.

Kids aren't allowed to purchase knives themselves so where else are Primary kids getting them from if not their parents?

Times have changed, and not for the better. No-one's too middle class to be a victim : ( Knife crime is a major issue facing our young in Britain today and we all have a part to play in combating it.

I got one for my 7th birthday. Never hurt myself or anyone else with it except when I caught a bit of skin while folding it the first time. I did manage to chop the end of my finger off while chopping veg aged 16 tho.

I always had pen knives as a small child and still have one now. DD1 [10] has asked for one for Christmas and we will be buying her one.

I can understand how horrible it is to have a personal experience of knife crime.That must have been awful for you and your DS bochead.

But I think that kids should still be able to learn bushcraft skills and have fun in the great outdoors.And learn to use knives responsibly and learn the damage that they do.

We cannot remove knives completely - people intent on causing harm will always be able to get hold of them.

DS wasn't the child taken to hospital in that encounter . The awful bit was the guilt he felt afterwards as I'd always taught him fighting is very wrong (bedwetting, nightmares etc). The school nurse was fantastic with him.

However as a result of that incident (cos honestly the other child was NOT the stereotypical monster child from a "problem" family etc) I stand by what I said at the top of the thread. The world isn't this perfect place we'd all love it to be for our kids sometimes, yet we owe it to them not to contribute to the problem.

Not to do our part is to be incredibly irresponsible - let parents retain official ownership of things the LAW regards as offensive weapons.

At 10 a child is considered to have criminal responsibility & carrying one means you are assumed guilty not innocent, an unusual position. Another poster mentioned the strangeness of the laws of offensive weapons further up thread. Why risk putting your kid in that position in the first place?

Didn't stop him spending the summer at bushcraft classes having the time of his life either. However I retain full OWNERSHIP of the penknife. If asked I'd rather he told a police man, or any other potentially disapproving authority figure "that's my Mum's knife". I as this automatically states my supervision iysim. It's too late once your kid has this sort of conviction to wish you'd handled things differently.

That sounds really good bochead

I'm glad he still does his bushcraft!

I had one which stayed on my Guide camp dress belt, so aged 10ish. Whiled many an hour away whittling notches into sticks!!

Personally, I'm more alarmed by the BB guns children get given as presents. A child brought one into school a short while back, and couldn't understand why we insisted we looked after it, and that Mum come and pick it up from the school ofice. Actually, I don't think she ever did in the end!

DS wasn't the child taken to hospital in that encounter.

your DS caused another boy to be sent to hospital?

DS got a penknife at age 9, it stays in his toolbox along with the hand drill and usual tools in the shed and he never leaves the garden with it in his possession unless he's going den building in his friends (massive tree filled) garden. Even though it's only on the next street one of us will walk him round, only because of the risk of him getting stopped while carrying a box of tools, a police officer may not believe that a teenager is actually going doing a spot of DIY...
He's getting quite handy with a penknife, his grandad is teaching him whittling

YABU

I had one as a kid, loved whittling sticks etc.

Yes. It's definitely appropriate. He will love it, treasure it, look after it and learn how to use it. All our DC have had penknives as presents in the past and they have really looked after them.

I really do,when I think about it,believe that to learn to use a knife is to learn the damage they can inflict.And to learn that they are tools,not weapons.

Ds spends hours whittling sticks in the garden. He loves his.

Ds learned knife safety early on though, he learned his to chop veg from about 3 and went to cooking classes where they are shown how to be safe.

Hi I just wanted to correct a post further up that there are

"London approx 250 kids/teens dies every year now from knife crime."

There are about 50. The total of people murdered in the uk is 650 and that's all murders.

Knife crime is huge though I am not negating that but did not want to give the impression that uk is over run.
Half the uk knife crime is reported in London so it a London thing more than a uk wide problem. ( at the moment)

Ds is getting one. He's 11. It will be for scouts though, where he needs to earn his knife permit before he is allowed to take it to camp.