Scented Pens? Have I missed something? Do people really think that scented children's pens are a good idea?

[Rhubarb]

dd and ds (7 and 3) came back from a party today with a scented marker each from Crayola. I have since googled and found a whole range of scented pens on offer. Did I miss the outcry over this? Did I miss the campaigns and angry letters this surely must have created?

I don't understand, please someone explain this to me?

Why is it Bad?

I had lots of scented pens when I was small.

not sure I see what the problem is either

Message withdrawn

my dd's love them

is it becasue it encourages them to sniff pens and they could sniff the wrong ones

This is what I don't get. When I was at school kids got high from sniffing marker pens. They were highly toxic and dangerous. How do you tell a child that it's ok to sniff an apple scented marker but not the big black ones that can cause poisoning?

Since when was it ok to encourage children to go round sniffing pens? What next? Scented glue?

i find it a bit odd too. they're pens to draw and write with. why you need to sniff them is beyond me. never got the scented rubber thing either

I'm sure there is scented glue arleady.

I would have thought that there are very few "dangerous" marker pens around these days, and when kids have a whiff and discover that it isn't sctrawberry scented they will get bored.

I think you would have to try Quite Hard to get any sort of high from a marker pen.

TBH I woudl have thought that having big thick permanent marker pens around the house are v. dangerous from a decorating point of view, rather than anything else.

More worrying is that people consciously market alcohol to children by making it taste like sweeties. Grr.

I had them when I was young, probably end of primary school so early 90's.
I dont see what the issue is TBH.
I think in some cases, it can encourage children, writing can be boring (I personally loved it, but hey) and pens could help?

roffle rhubarb
you having a bad day??

seriously, how are you, you ok?
if you nip over wuickly, you can have sunday roast with us, be ready at about 5.30

Scented pens and erasers were bees knees when I was in Primary school. I vaguely remember some big flap about how they could encourage children to sniff glue or solvents and loads of schools banned them. They've been around a fair few years this time around. I don't have a problem with them myself I must say.

Rhubarb - I'm not sure how my mum managed to teach me - but I enjoyed "sniffing" the pictures I'd drawn and the pens but never had any desire to sniff marker pens etc.

Surely it's not really any different from having to explain to a child that when mummy is walking round the supermarket buying her spray deodorant/perfume that it's ok to sniff them....but not to sniff other types of aerosol???

scented glue

QoQ because if you sniff the pen you get a coloured bit under your nose

i didnt even realise kids werent allowed to buy glue!!!

dd went into hobbycraft to buy some fabric glue and she wasnt allowed as she is only 9..

Leave Rhubarb alone!
She's having a hard time on the private/state education thread!

(I agree with everything you say on there btw Rhubarb)

I have never thought about the toxicity of scented pens but the dds love them.

Well it's just me then. I was under the impression that sniffing felt pens was a big no-no. Scented glue too eh? Lovely!

We have permanent marker pens for labelling purposes, they are quite pongy. We keep them out of the children's reach but I certainly didn't think that they should be sniffing any kind of pen.

Aerosol cans are different, they are not marketed at children and young children have difficulty pressing the nozzle. I was just astonished to see scented pens as was dh. We are obviously behind with the times!

Thanks TR but we're having a quiet evening getting ready for nursery/work tomorrow.

"young children have difficulty pressing the nozzle"

hmm - I'm not so sure about that......both DS1 and DS2 have been in trouble before now for getting hold of my deo and empting the entire can in the bedroom - both were under 3 when they did it - and as much as I liked the scent of it the entire can was a bit too much

But scented glue? Aimed at kids? I mean come on! Obviously what I thought was unacceptable is now clearly acceptable and I really should get with the times!

hamster - cheers, it's actually quite fun to get your teeth into a good debate! I'll bail out at the first sign of trouble though, I've learnt my lesson there.

I'm sorry that I'm just too wimpy to back you up

Although mummymagic going in to bat now ....

Rhubarb, I have seen your posts on a lot of threads and think you hold up well with your opinion, hope you're not getting too much stick on the other thread!

As for scented pens, have you ever smelt that white one which you use to write secret messages? They STINK bloody awful!

But then so did glue, yet kids still got hooked on sniffing it.

Now they can get high on strawberry scented glue, making the whole experience much more enjoyable

That other thread is fine. I'm backing out soon as you can't keep making the same point can you? It gets tiresome after a while.

can you get high from strawberry scented glue though?
I haven't seen the glue tbh, must have come out after I was at school