Does Your Family Purchase Fire Works?

As a kid we were always allowed to have sparklers. As I parent, I don't want my children to have them.

I HATE fireworks! (professional displays are fine) So are so many other ways to spend my entertainment budget. I also think they are very dangerous.

Yes we do.
My grandpa was a veteran, a police officer, and the president of a Little League. The 4th of July was his absolute favorite holiday because he loved America so much. He would save his money all year long to be able to buy tons of fireworks. He would spend over $2000 on fireworks every year for all of his grandkids and for all of the kids from the block. We would all get together and as soon as it got dark, we would light up the sky. There were so many fireworks, we would get bored from lighting so many. But my grandpa loved it!! So every year, the family gets together and we all light fireworks as soon as it gets dark. We don't get as much as my grandpa used to but we still light them in honor of him.

Yes, we always go together with my siblings and cousins and get a bunch. We set them off at my parents home out in the country. We also have hoses and buckets of water ready. If it is really dry, we don't. Just too risky!

My family is BIG into fireworks. My aunt and uncle have everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) over every 4th, and we all bring our own fireworks. My uncle always brings some of the mortars & pipes, and over the years, we've gotten quite a collection of pipes. The older kids (or anyone whose parents will let them) go out and help put the mortars in the pipes & we have our own show. I have to say, in the past, we've rivaled the town's show! My husband didn't come from a family that did QUITE as much, but he's a huge fireworks fan, so he was ecstatic the first time he went out there with me. We've let our 2 year old play with sparklers, and I'm sure she'll be as big a nut as we are as she gets older.

OMG of course we do. We also keep a stash for just in case! We grew up with them and respect them.. No silliness with them..

They are not allowed this season because it is too dry.

We are not allowed to have them in the city, so we fire them at the lake towards the lake.. So much fun.

We used to get small ones when I was a child
I was always a little afraid of them
When I had my son we went to the public firework shows
About three years ago, he begged me to get some to shoot off - we had just moved into a new neighborhood and the many on our street do them.
So, I took him to the local fireworks stand and explained that we were new to fireworks and asked them to suggest some things.
While I am still a little nervous about them - we have had great fun lighting them off on July 4th and New Years.
I set a price limit of $50-75 and a size limit and just let him have fun with it.
If anything it has taught him fireworks safety.

Although, this coming 4th, I may skip them - we have been under a burn ban - no rain in literally months - and have already had several forest fires in the area.

God Bless

The summer after I graduated high school I spent a few weeks visiting the burn unit at University of Iowa Hospitals.... that's where a good friend was who burned his arm, neck and face with his home fireworks display. They weren't even that big of fireworks, but they sure burned him! He was there for almost a month.

For that reason, and also because they're illegal here, I don't do fireworks and hate being around them. I leave it to the professionals. Backyard fireworks, in my opinion, are kinda hokey anyway.

We do if we have the extra money.....It is fun!!

I have never purchased fireworks ever and never thought you could even do that until I moved out into the country 3 years ago.

I hate them completely. The noise, the smell, the hazard....leave them in the hands of those who know what they are doing.

Yep, we do! We live by an Indian Reservation, where they are legal to buy/sell. It is illegal to light them off within city limits, where we live now...so sometimes we take the kids to the public display at our downtown park but it is such a hassle, we do not do it very often! I have a house full of teenage boys that LOVE to construct 'Fireworks Boards' where they connect a whole bunch of different ones together and then light it off as a unit! Great fun!

Growing up in LA, Ca., Fireworks were legal and we always did them ourselves, never once went to a public display as a kid, it was just always right outside our front door, in the middle of the street...we lit off ours and watched everyone on the block light off theirs. *Picallo Petes and the spinning butterflies were always my favorites...and you can't have 4th of July w/out sparklers :)

I live in one of the wettest cities in the US and fireworks, at least the kind you can buy, are illegal in pretty much every county here! cracks me up...especially since Washingtonians will joke about summer not coming until AFTER July 4th.
I don't like them anyways...so it's fine that we can't buy them. I have seen too many stupid kids and stupid adults have a firework blow up in their face, on their hands, feet....too dangerous to me.
L.

We get some, not much. In fact I still have some left from New Years. We are not in the city limits and we live on a culdesac. Our neighbors shoot off some all around us. We do our little that we have and watch everyone else's. However, we may not get to this July 4th because we are currently under a burn ban right now due to no rain. So unless we get a lot of rain before then, there may not be any at all here. It's all in fun but we have never gone overboard with it.

my father has been a licensed pyrotech since before i was born! hes been in charge of setting up quite a few fourth of july shows in the past, i even had the opportunity to help him with one!

since i grew up with fireworks, ive learned about fire safety my whole life. ive known how to safely handle them since i was 5.

fireworks were a huge part of my childhood, something that i could bond with my dad over! so i love them.

my mom hates them though! lol

We live on the edge of the Tribal Lands. Driving to our home, we pass stands chockablock full of "illegal" fireworks. Our little neighborhood is nestled at the edge of a peninsula at the bottom of the Puget Sound. Originally it was created as a summering spot for wealthy Seattleits and then, over the decades, full year residents moved in. Now, mansions are built next to the original cabins. Every year, we all chip in to a neighborhood display. Some folks who live on the water compete with each other. Collectively, the big homes spend 30,000 dollars (at least) on fireworks. The display is amazing. We buy a few boring (read: safe and affordable) fireworks for the kids, and then pack up a picnic, blankets, and friends, and head to the beach to watch.

The down side, is that for two weeks (4th of July = the week before AND after, apparently ;-) is absolutely terrified, and the kids wake up every 15 minutes from the noise. By the end, we don't miss fireworks when they stop getting set off.

By the time I was 10-12 or so, my parents let us do fireworks in the backyard for 4th of July. Fireworks meaning sparklers and the little ones that are easy to handle. Of course, my parents were always there with us and we were never alone. If done responsibly, I think kids would really enjoy it!

I've always just assumed that if you grew up with brothers, you grew up with fireworks.

As a kid I grew up/spent my summers on the water... we set fireworks off on the end of the dock.

As an adult we haven't ever lived on the water... so if July 4th is at home, we just do sparklers (anything beyond sparklers is illegal in our current county, but even in legal counties we were in apts, nope! Not happening there!). If we go down to the beach (outside our county, where they're legal) we absolutely do.

No real need.
Pittsburgh.
Zambelli.
'Nuf said.

BUT we do get the occasional "snaps".

We always had them growing up. But we had a farm to go to to set them off. I hate it here -- some of our neighbors set them off in their yards which is very dangerous with the droughts we have and of course it is illegal.
We have let our boys have them but they have to go to where it is legal to use them.
I love the big displays and prefer going to them.

We have a summer home where we put off fireworks. All my kids have had the sparklers and have set off Roman candles. THey are 22, 16, 13, and 10. My dad and the hubby are always with them. We do get the big ones but the men only put them up. My 22 is now part of the men.
We get them from Indiana.

When we are not at the summer home we do sparklers and the ones that do not go into the sky.

When we were growing up my (now retired) fire fighter father would lose his freakin' MIND. Get this, he hated working in early July because of all the dumb accidents BUT he'd spend GOD KNOWS how much money on fire works from out of state. The fire fighters rotated every year and made runs for fire works from down south somewhere.

My dad LIVED for those damn things. One year he melted a HOLE in the new driveway. A BIG hole!

Yup, it was a big family thing. My grandma/his mom would sit on the porch with the running hose "just in case" something happened. Regular Bonnie and Clyde those two! She looooved watching my dad set them off. He always had the HUGEST smiles while he set them off...so much fun and great memories.

BTW, fire works are great in the winter. The air allows them to go higher for some reason. Less humidity? Also next to no chance of starting anything on fire with a foot of snow on the ground!

Argh. My husband buys a small stash every few years and doesn't tell me. We can't buy them in my state and sure as heck can't use them here but that doesn't stop him - way to set an example, right? He once bought a box and left it in the back of my car - I had no idea that I was driving around with a box of explosives for months.

He sets them off on his dad's beach. One year he brought my oldest son down to the beach with him. Something went wrong and a bunch of them caught fire, so genius sent my son racing to and from the water with a cardboard box to get water to put out the fire. Naturally the box didn't hold enough water - it didn't even occur to him to just kick sand on the stuff or have a bucket of water handy. So...now if he lights them off the kids are nowhere near him.

I love fireworks, but the professional displays we watch on New Year's Eve and Fourth of July are enough for me!

I don't like to buy fireworks, but I'm the only one in my family. To me it seems an extreme waste of money (once in a while I'll buy it to support a specific group running the fireworks stand) and I don't like putting all the sulfur into the atmosphere. Not to mention I'm extremely paranoid that something will happen and my kids will get hurt (so I don't let them anywhere near any of it, except sparklers, and then I'm a basket case about safety precautions). Oh, and my kids are now 8-12, so it's nothing to do with them being little.

Hi! I don't buy any fireworks. When I was a kid my parents would get me sparklers, but that's all that I got. Now that I have 2 kids, I prefer to watch the ones that are set off at public displays as well. My oldest son LOVES to watch the fireworks and he hasn't displayed any interest in having me or daddy get some for him. I hope that this helps!:o)

I. K.

My family buys them every year. we have a family picnic and then later that night we let off the fireworks for the children to watch. its a wonderful thing to watch and we have done it every year since me and my husband first started dating 6 years ago. i mean some people mess around with them, but we know what we are doing and we have them far away from the children so that way no accidents happen. we are very cautious about it

Nope. $2000 beginning fine if you are caught using fireworks here.

We have some fantastic fireworks presentations and we go see them instead.

No, but then again I am a worry wart. I will buy the snap n pops, that can be thrown or stepped on. I will buy smoke bombs. I think Sparklers are totally dangerous but the grandparents have let the kids do them while supervised...still scares me. We usually go to a city display....big oohs and awes and the best price.....FREE = )

No, I do not think they should be used in suburban areas, I think they should be reserved for people who know what they are doing. Tons of people in my area do them and it makes me crazy b/c it's always right around bed time!

I would never buy them myself...I am too afraid to light them, but my husband buys some that we light in our backyard for the kids. They love it. It adds to the celebration. I have held a sparkler and it is not so bad.

Sigh, technically illegal in NYS. But my uncle who is a state trooper supplies us with a very cool show every year for family parties!

:)

We don't but my brothers-in-law and one of my brothers do. We always watch my brothers-in-law at MIL's house with all of their kids after roasting marshmallows and BBQ-ing.

Two years ago the guys weren't as careful as they should have been and one of the rockets ended up overshooting and going off course and it shot between my legs and the little kids I was sitting with. It sucked because my then-4 year old and my then-3 year old niece both had their legs burned when it shot past. So those two plus my then-6 year old and my then-6 year old niece were afraid of fireworks and wanted to go inside but we managed to get higher up on a porch.

Last year I had the girls all start out on the high up porch at my SIL's house (next to MIL's house) and the girls were still afraid and anxious, but it went much better. The guys also keep a hose and buckets handy now, and are using better safety.

No way...too many bad things can happen. I would rather take my kids somewhere else to watch them. Besides lots of folks in my neighborhood buy them, which pisses me off to no end. The houses in our development are literally within 15 feet of each other and people want to shoot them off in yards. Doesn't seem to matter that there is a soccer field right behind our house that has PLENTY of room. We always wake up the next day with spent fireworks in our yard. I am always afraid that our house will catch on fire.

The air quality is just horrible from fireworks - I love to see the big displays and I think those are fine, but I hate the heavy sulphur smell from the home fireworks the day after the 4th. Who wants to breathe all of that in? We don't buy them.

Yes, we buy fireworks, have a BBQ and set them off in our Cul-De-Sac...our neighbors join in and it's a BLAST!!!

No huge crowds, no waits for the port-a-potty and YAHOO! fun!!!

Updated

Yes, we buy fireworks, have a BBQ and set them off in our Cul-De-Sac...our neighbors join in and it's a BLAST!!!

No huge crowds, no waits for the port-a-potty and YAHOO! fun!!!

We do. We have our daughter (she is only 21 months) sit and watch with ear plugs in. She usually gets bored and fall asleep. It's for the older kids and adults for now.

Updated

We do. We have our daughter (she is only 21 months) sit and watch with ear plugs in. She usually gets bored and fall asleep. It's for the older kids and adults for now.
I think it's a great way to celebrate my birthday since it's July 4th and the family has a lot of fun with them! We stop at a decent time though and are cautious about them and they are not illegal where we live.

Nope - they scare me to death! :-)