Are fireworks treated differently now than when you were a kid?

Enhance said:
FWIW this article shows fireworks injuries steadily declined for several years but shot back up recently as states relaxed some restrictions.

IMO I think a huge piece of this conversation is just general awareness of fireworks injuries or dangerous situations in general. When I was a kid, and even a teenager, I barely remember hearing about fireworks injuries. I'm not even sure my parents did much. But today, especially with the way social media is, everything gets so deeply discussed and over-analyzed. Some kid loses a hand, a parent sees it on Facebook, they see the comments/reactions, it shows up on local news and everywhere else, and it just blows up (no pun intended) into this big deal. This lends itself to behavior adjustments on behalf of the parents.

Graph from article showcasing fireworks injuries since 1980's.

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See, here's proof.  They weren't even keeping track of these records when I was a kid.

 
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BigRedBuster said:
Oh...it did.  

Some of the things my father told me his parents allowed him to do.....no way was I allowed to do that.

He was born in 1934, he has a picture of him and all his cousins (he was the youngest at maybe 5) lined up with a horse pulling a wagon.  The story behind it was that they were headed to the Platte River to camp for a week.  The oldest cousin was maybe 10-12.  No adults.  No way of getting ahold of anyone.

He remembers being sent to Detroit by train when he was 15 (yes, 15) to pick up his Dad's new car and drive it back to Nebraska.  

There are more stories.  But, you get the point.  The stories are different, but each generation is the same.  There's things they did that they wouldn't allow or want their kids to do.
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That reminded me, I had a great aunt who claimed she fell out of a tree and broke her collar bone but she didn’t want to get in trouble so she never told her parents. Had another great aunt who lost part of her ear because she (just barely) had the side of her head run over by a wagon wheel.

Maybe every 3rd or 4th generation we forget the things we were careful about and get lax again. Or maybe we’ll get safer and safer and safer ‘til no one goes outside and we all go to school over the internet then work from home. 

 
Moiraine said:
On the bolded, then why didn’t it happen with previous generations of parents? Kids were lighting fireworks when your parents were kids too. If it was a case of being careful because you don’t want your kids to do what you did, it wouldn’t be this sudden influx of overprotective parents. The cautiousness would’ve been the case with previous generations too.

Another theory popped into my head though. People were more likely to die younger in general back them. Maybe they were more focused on things like polio and figured if their kid survived that they’d let them have fun with other stuff.

I’m sure there are more cases of adults doing bad things but I think per capita it’s down from what I’ve read in the past. We think it happens at a higher rate because we hear about it more often.
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I guess I'm not confused at all as to why things are trending the way they are. It doesn't matter at all if crime and bad things are really down, per capital or otherwise. Facts and data like that really don't control people's perceptions. The stories they hear, the news they're exposed to etc. is all it takes to make people think things are worse or going to hell in a handbasket. It's just human nature. It's why FoxNews has the effect it does. 99% of people will believe crimes against children are much more common regardless what any real data may suggest. That's one of the reasons I've begun avoiding the news. I'm happier not hearing about all the sh#tty things going on in the world. And let's face it, most of the news is bad news. Of course if you hear that stuff day in and day out you're going to think things are bad.

 
JJ Husker said:
I guess I'm not confused at all as to why things are trending the way they are. It doesn't matter at all if crime and bad things are really down, per capital or otherwise. Facts and data like that really don't control people's perceptions. The stories they hear, the news they're exposed to etc. is all it takes to make people think things are worse or going to hell in a handbasket. It's just human nature. It's why FoxNews has the effect it does. 99% of people will believe crimes against children are much more common regardless what any real data may suggest. That's one of the reasons I've begun avoiding the news. I'm happier not hearing about all the sh#tty things going on in the world. And let's face it, most of the news is bad news. Of course if you hear that stuff day in and day out you're going to think things are bad.
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Yep

 
I feel like people that call the cops about fireworks are the same type of people that will live on a golf course and get mad about golf balls in their yard.

 
depends on the time and what is being set off. that giant 1k roll of firecrackers at 2 am, just might warrant a call.

and for the record, i've never reported anyone for shooting off fireworks or disturbance.

 
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