Little garden bonfire
Discussion
4 and a half year old son wanted to do a bonfire in the garden, so we're going to do one in the portable barbecue (maybe 20 inches round?). He's been collecting little twigs to dry and helped cut some pallet wood into pieces to burn, but I'm not sure how involved to get him on the day. I'd love him to help me build and light it, but is that going to give him a thirst for flames when he gets older? We otherwise have no fire in the house (no wood burner or gas cooking) and it's only once a year, he's a stable 4yo boy and his overwhelming memory will likely be toasted marshmallows so just want to know if I'm overthinking this!
Let him do the whole thing. He’ll get bored otherwise.
We use a fire log at the base of it as it lights pretty quickly and a blow torch to get it going.
Then spend as much time as you can fetching sticks to keep it fed.
Our kids have lit fires, bbqs, (and occasionally fireworks) since they were three. And by involving them you get to instil the safety aspects without the fear.
Compare this with the cousins that are petrified of everything which in turn makes it more dangerous…..
We use a fire log at the base of it as it lights pretty quickly and a blow torch to get it going.
Then spend as much time as you can fetching sticks to keep it fed.
Our kids have lit fires, bbqs, (and occasionally fireworks) since they were three. And by involving them you get to instil the safety aspects without the fear.
Compare this with the cousins that are petrified of everything which in turn makes it more dangerous…..
:I had a big one in the garden that included petrol and all those anti safety things you get warned about when I was around 5/6. Good news i never got a taste for flames... in otherwords, yes your over thinking it. Your kid probably plays GTA at his friends house killing ho's and burning people with flamethrowers. I wouldnt worry. I also played that and turned out fine. It was 2D in my day though...
OK that one will be in another 2-3 years haha.
OK that one will be in another 2-3 years haha.
I think the OP should just be very careful but definitely do it.
When I was 8 my mum asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I said "A bonfire".
One of the best things I've done in my life was the final day of a National Trust working holiday on Exmoor when the team leader allowed me to be in charge of the bonfire in his place. Other people cut stuff down and brought it to me and I spent the whole day chucking brambles, bracken and saplings onto the fire. Marvellous.
When I was 8 my mum asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I said "A bonfire".
One of the best things I've done in my life was the final day of a National Trust working holiday on Exmoor when the team leader allowed me to be in charge of the bonfire in his place. Other people cut stuff down and brought it to me and I spent the whole day chucking brambles, bracken and saplings onto the fire. Marvellous.
Evoluzione said:
It's more the physical damage I would be bothered about. Teach him about fire, the dangers and keep him safe.
That's a good perspective, I'll go with that. We'll have to build it in the morning when it's light, but getting him to feed a small fire with bits of wood is a good idea as it'll keep him interested, rather than what I would want to do for myself which is pile up all the wood we've got and set fire to it in one go. 
Get him lighting it, let him get a bit too close but not actually too close.
We tended to spend a lot of time burning stuff as kids, we had a field to burn stuff in, dens with a fire in like Stig of the Dump, cooking beefburgers on a sort of platter thing which tunred out of be my mates mums best one so she wastn impressved when it came back a bit kind of burnt with obvious evidence where we had scoured it with brillo pads and tried to straighten it out
My dad trained us well with fire, basically if he was doing it then it probably wasn't a good idea, remember him trying to light a pile of leaves that even as an eight year old were too damp, he tried various accelerants and found that paint thinners gave a good chance of achieving combustion but leaving the empty (ish) 5 litre can on the grass wasnt a good idea as it fell over, the fumes ignited and it propelled itself at rocket like velocity across the garden narrowly missing us, most impressive as it left a fire trail like the De Lorean in back to the future and collapsed in on itself and looked like a crushed Coke can.
The other one was firing bangers from a tent pole.
I rarely had eyebrows between the ages of 12 and 15
It wont turn him into a pyromaniac, I think it does them good by an large, makes me wonder how many people grow up and have no feel for stuff like that, perhaps why some folk are happy carrying unleaded round in carrier bags, having not seen what it does to toy cars in much smaller quantities as a kid, then you see someone chuck it on a bonfire, errr no, obviously never been chased by burning petrol vapour.
We tended to spend a lot of time burning stuff as kids, we had a field to burn stuff in, dens with a fire in like Stig of the Dump, cooking beefburgers on a sort of platter thing which tunred out of be my mates mums best one so she wastn impressved when it came back a bit kind of burnt with obvious evidence where we had scoured it with brillo pads and tried to straighten it out
My dad trained us well with fire, basically if he was doing it then it probably wasn't a good idea, remember him trying to light a pile of leaves that even as an eight year old were too damp, he tried various accelerants and found that paint thinners gave a good chance of achieving combustion but leaving the empty (ish) 5 litre can on the grass wasnt a good idea as it fell over, the fumes ignited and it propelled itself at rocket like velocity across the garden narrowly missing us, most impressive as it left a fire trail like the De Lorean in back to the future and collapsed in on itself and looked like a crushed Coke can.
The other one was firing bangers from a tent pole.
I rarely had eyebrows between the ages of 12 and 15
It wont turn him into a pyromaniac, I think it does them good by an large, makes me wonder how many people grow up and have no feel for stuff like that, perhaps why some folk are happy carrying unleaded round in carrier bags, having not seen what it does to toy cars in much smaller quantities as a kid, then you see someone chuck it on a bonfire, errr no, obviously never been chased by burning petrol vapour.
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