Future flashaholics in training - kids with flashlights

Kids like flashlights. Pretty much always. Never seen a kid that didn't like 'em.

My nephew turned two last month. I've been patiently waiting since Dec. '05, and have now decided "yep, he's old enough for flashlights now!" Reason being, last week he opened a cabinet here in the house, grabbed the big 6V Eveready light sitting there, and turned it on. His face light up as bright as the light, and proceeded to walk around the house with it.

Although he received a CPF logo'd Safelight at age one, he doesn't know about it yet. So, I'm in CVS the other day, just happened to pass the flashlight section, and found the perfect light for him to start off with! It's made by Garrity, and called the "Life Light". It's $3, is built quite tough enough for a good amount of kid abuse, is not super bright (so he won't go burning his eyes out), very comfortable to hold (due to it's garden spray nozzle-like shape) and a super-cool, kid friendly feature... the batteries are fully sealed in! They're 3 Duracell AAA's, and when they're drained, the whole thing is meant to be disposable. Really awesome for kids.

Well, I showed it to him in the package the other day, and said "here, look at this... this is for you!". He immediately starts saying "open!... open!" (heart meltingly cute). I took it out, said "flashlight!", and showed him the switch. He turned it on, and got this HUGE smile on his face. I then showed him to shine it on walls and whatnot, and off he went, shining it all over the house. It was sooo freakin' cute!

So now he knows he owns a flashlight. When he was here today, I said "go get your flashlight!", and he went and got it out of his toy chest, turned it on and started waving it around.

Now yes, I'm a biased uncle, but let me tell you this kid's got a fierce knack for things mechanical. Almost from infancy, he hasn't stopped playing with any kind of button, knob, switch, lever, etc. he can get his little hands on. Loves computers, turning his parent's cars on using the remote starter (LOL... that cracks me up... keys NEED to be out of reach at all times), messing with my guitars, turns off his electric toys when finished with them, and a bunch of other things.

I think I see a modded, multi-level Cree in his near future, which will of course, be named after him. It will be called "The Creestopher". :devil:

I'm sure there are a lot of kids-with-flashlights stories out there, so jump in and tell 'em! And how many other uncles/aunts/parents/grandparents are out there just waiting share the gift of light with the little ones?!

Oh, BTW... you know how I can tell he's going to be a TRUE flashaholic?

He keeps shining the damn thing in his eyes!

Bimmerboy said:

Oh, BTW... you know how I can tell he's going to be a TRUE flashaholic?

He keeps shining the damn thing in his eyes!

Click to expand...

I thought it is because kids ARE influenced by their unckles

thats truely a heart warming story...
do tell us when he makes his own cpf account in a few years time...

Crenshaw

Great story, that's what uncles are for! :thumbsup:

My sister has two sons, and I gave the elder a flashlight recently, when he turned three. He did like it, and played with it for a while, but wasn't anywhere near as exited as your nephew. They were visiting us a few months before and he loved playing with my lights, so I expected him to be more excited about a light of his own, but oh well, kids... Maybe it will grow on him sooner or later.

I've given my cousin my trusty P1 (Lux III) ... and he had been playing with it for sometime ... Now, I want to introduce a slightly more advanced light to him ... Anyone got any reccomendations ?

P.S : Bimmerboy, sorry for hijacking your thread ~ But i felt that this is a nice thread to ask this ...

Out at my tech school, a guy brought his kid in (around a year old). I was playing wiht my E2E, and he just kept staring at it. I flashed it in his face, and he just started laughing histerically. He thought it was the best thing in the world. I didn't hit him with the spot though, that would have been a little too bright (LF EO-2R)...:devil:

My son will be 2 yrs of age in a few months. I already bought him a winnie the pooh flashlight (for some reason i like it, it has a decent hotspot. Much better than some.) i also got him a Dorcy lantern and a recent purchase of a AA light with a round disk (film) with fishes and you can point them at the wall and see the pictures. Im beginning to think he likes flaslights. 90% of the time, right at bedtime, i would turn on my 120P to the lowest setting and put it on a tailstand he would stare at it and next thing u know he's snoring........

Fututre flashaholic for sure.

A few months ago I was at Walmart with my daughters (5 & 6yrs old) and ended up getting them each a pink minimag. No mods...yet

My 2YO son LOVES flashlights - he can't say flashlight so he says "eee-lash". His first ones were a dog and dinosaur pack from Costco last summer that had the light come out of their mouths and barked/roared when you turned them on. Then Daddy made the mistake of showing him a Surefire...and a Novatac...and an Inova...the list goes on and on. He gets the biggest smile when he sees a flashlight.

Every night when I get home from work we play with eee-lashes. He knows I always have one in my pocket, so he'll point to my pocket, smile, and say "eee-lash"! That's my cue to whip out the Novatac, Fenix, JETBeam or whatever I have on me that day.

I got him his own headlamp - one of the Costco ROV K2's. Adjusted the band to fit him, and...at first he was skeptical of what I was trying to put on him. Once he figured it out, he smiled and ran down the hallway into his dark bedroom and started playing and looking at his books by headlamp. Wouldn't let me take it off either!

So yes, there is much hope to be had that the flashaholic genes in me have been passed on to the next generation. And that a worthy heir to the collection has been born.

Totally adorable story, Wicho!

Update on the nephew...

Due to the mess around here, I've had 6 lights on my studio desk for over a month that haven't gone back into the display cabinet (normally just have two). A mix of forward clickie, reverse clickie, multi-level, and twistie. Well, he knows how to work all 6 now. No problem... he's got 'em all down! He's been saying "flafflight" pretty clearly as well.

He just loves to bust in (knocks on the door first, opens it, then busts in... lol), and play with them all. He shuts each one off, and puts it back in exactly the same spot he got it from, grabs another one. Funny as hell. Sometimes he'll bring one into another room where the lights are off, and shine it around.

When that's done, he moves onto the guitars. :twothumbs

Here is my Little Flahaholic son

My niece absolutely loves the fenix she got as a birthday present (my sister was less than thrilled that I gave her daughter a flashlight), and uses it almost all the time. Very cute story, BimmerBoy!

When my daughter (13mo old) manages to get into our bedroom (we usually keep the door closed because it isn't baby proofed) she runs around the bed straight to my nightstand... and of course grabs the flashlights.

I have a 5 and a 2 year old that both have inherited my affinity for lights. Every so often at bath time we turn out all the lights and I get 4 or 5 waterproof lights and throw them in the tub with them. They just go crazy for "Flaslight Baths" as we call them. The lights are all plastic dive lights so they can't hurt the tub, or get damaged in the bath. Its good fun and my wife just doesn't get it.....she just walks around in the dark muttering that she needs a daughter so she can relate to someone else in the house !!

These kids are flashaholic larvae.

My 3 year old became enamored of my SL TT-1L. He likes the two different lights (for those unfamiliary with it, it's an incan/led hybrid - ok, it seemed a good idea at the time-it has a xenon bulb, with a pathetic output and horrible beam quality, and 3 5mm leds, which are actually pretty useful) which he refers to as 'brown' and 'blue' (three years old, and he's already an adept beam-quality critic!). I let him play with it, using the LEDs, explaining it will save the battery (the incan just eats CR123a cells.)

He also loves to play with whatever flashlight I happen to have with me, so I think he's catching the bug. He's also had a couple of little plastic AA powered lanterns with some sort of very white incan bulbs for a year or so, and loves them. They actually worked quite well to carry while Trick-or-Treating on Halloween, which is still done after dark in my neck of the woods.

For his upcoming 4th birthday, I thought he ought to have a 'real' light. I got him an RC-G2, and am just waiting on the right diameter GITD o-rings (already got the GITD tail clicky) to tweak it for him. It seems like a good kid's light, sturdy, bright, simple, kind-of 'cool' looking, and inexpensive. Can you say $11-shipped? I was thinking he might need to have it modded with a Cree Q5 on a 5 mode board, but that might be overkill for a 4 year old. I'd also probably end up blowing-up the light or burning down the house if I tried something like that, so he'll just have to make do with the stock emitter. 4 years old, and he's gonna have a brighter light than anything I had until I was 40. Ain't technology great?

Haha... super-cute stuff, everyone! I've enjoyed every response.

LOL, Mata - Awesome pic. His eyes are almost as big in diameter as the bezel in their expression of wonderment.

Definitely gotta' post a vid of the 'Neph' workin' the lights... if I can find the charger for the dead camcorder around here somewhere.