The next generation Flashaholic...

At my age I have grown up children who have their own children,my girlfriend has children who also have children so I am surrounded one way or another by grandchildren or her grandchildren.They range in age from 3 up to 8.I have far more lights than I need or ever use so I am having great pleasure in giving the older ones their very own decent Led torch(as we call them in the UK)

The girlfriend's 8-year-old grandson seems to take an interest in anything remotely like a gadget so I will gift him a few.

ps Breaking a habit no Alkalines...Freshly bought Loops.

A flashlight is one of the best gifts you can give a kid. :thumbsup:

Wonder what they will experience torch wise in the future...maybe every cell phone has a 30,000 lumen torch built in. Perhaps they will drag up grandpa's old lights and laugh. Amazed that good money was spent on something so dim and that did nothing else. Like beaming a 120 inch super ultra high def movie on any wall...when not making a phone call. Who knows what the future holds. But yea, torches make great gifts for kids from 90 down to 5 years old.

awesome to see the hobby being passed down well! NiMH's? Uh oh what about chargers and all that now? What kind of lights are you gifting away to them?

That reminds me of how quickly i would lose patience in toys when waiting for batteries to charge. My little RC truck ran on rechargeable D cells. I think i smashed it. Good thing batteries are smaller, cheaper and charge faster now. Make sure he gets a few sets
My first flashlight was a 2xAA Maglite. It was a gift from a Lehman Caves tour guide when i turned 8. She might as well have given me a super power. I definitely preferred FIRE and scorpions at that age, but the flashlight was a nice addition to my mischief.

parnass said:

A flashlight is one of the best gifts you can give a kid. :thumbsup:

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Definately not a book. Those kinds of presents are only for those children destined to have the top paying jobs in the future.

mcnair - not looking to cause debate here, but isn't this practice in direct conflict with the rant you went on a few years back?

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?393024-Light-for-a-3yo-boy

ShineOnYouCrazyDiamond said:

mcnair - not looking to cause debate here, but isn't this practice in direct conflict with the rant you went on a few years back?

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?393024-Light-for-a-3yo-boy

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I am not opening the link but my thoughts have not changed,Josh the little fella at 3 is not having a light,I let him play with one when he is here but he is just to young in my opinion.My limit is 5 years of age.

So when I was a kid we had this thing called "hand-me-downs".

Parents got a Mag, we got the rayovac. Big brother got a new stereo, we got the Ronald McDonald record player.

Give 'em 'hand me down' solitaires or something.

I gave a friend of mine a Coast HP1. He gave it to his 6 month old for a day for a chew toy.
Cept for a nervous tic and bumping into walls the kid is otherwise fine.

Guys, seriously. Just use your head. Kids have survived stupid parents for thousands of years.

I have just been to the little ones parents evening, Callums we sat outside(as 30m early and could not be bothered coming home for 10m to leave again) . In this time there was a small tent with all stuff in, "DADDY LOOK a torch!" he dived in and grabbed a red eveready for something like(nope not oveready) with a push switch...............i dont think he would have been as excited if it was an RC car!!! Then he shone it naturally in my eyes, took it back and left it in the tent..................30s maybe gone "NO NO left it on!" , dived back in and turned it off..........

I am sure young kids if have them around or anyway a part in their life, they do have an interest in them. When a 6yr old asks to watch " lets watch vinh videos daddy" ................there maybe trouble ahead:tinfoil:

I think zoomies offer good interest for younger ones, just being able to change the beam............also it seems bigger the better too:shakehead

Age is a tough one, obviously common sense comes into it but also judgement on the little one involved, for example just because they are 10, does not mean they have the right mind set.

bykfixer said:

So when I was a kid we had this thing called "hand-me-downs".

Parents got a Mag, we got the rayovac. Big brother got a new stereo, we got the Ronald McDonald record player.

Give 'em 'hand me down' solitaires or something.

I gave a friend of mine a Coast HP1. He gave it to his 6 month old for a day for a chew toy.
Cept for a nervous tic and bumping into walls the kid is otherwise fine.

Guys, seriously. Just use your head. Kids have survived stupid parents for thousands of years.

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Love that reply 10/10.

At no older than 4 i was taught how to light a fire, and how to put out various types of fires. I was using a knife to help clean chickens and for carving wood when i was 4. At 6 i was drilled in safe gun handling, and my first shot was a 3 1/2" 12 gauge slug (i almost stayed upright). I think the suggestion of a flashlight being unsafe for me at any age would have been taken by my parents as an insult to my intelligence.
That being said, if as i child i had an MH20GT and "played" with it inside or shined it in a persons (or animals) face, i wouldn not have had it for long. But then, and now, i would consider a flashlight as much a toy as it is a tool. The lights we have now are no joke. They aren't "dangerous" but i don't believe a young child needs a real eye-blaster unless they have a specific task in mind. If i had kids, i would keep it simple and invincible with the flashlights. I would keep them away from the beastly lights, not for safety reasons, but to spare them the agony of always wanting a brighter light.....that is a slippery slope
On a side note, i find it a bit sad that a flashlight can't really be a timeless gift. I will always have my first Old Timer pocket knife, and it will always be one of my favorite and most used knives. My maglite is in a box somewhere, along with my incandescent Petzl Duo and a few other relics. I have high hopes for some of the aesthetically timeless pieces, but they will inevitably be cast aside in favor of sunglasses with built-in night vision.