Carving pumpkins is an American tradition that coincides with the celebration and festivities of the Halloween spirit. The activity is enjoyed by families teaching their little kids how to carve faces into the sides of large hallowed out gourds. It is fun to do, but it involves knifes, heavy pumpkins, and seeds just big enough to block a toddler’windpipe. Carving pumpkins is a hazardous field day of opportunity for an unsupervised tyke to get injured. Why not take precautions and even teach your little children the importance of safety while ripping out the gooey innards of a pumpkin? Here is a step by step guide to safety while carving pumpkins.
First of all, after bringing the pumpkins home from the patch, put them in a place where they cannot roll off of a high counter or cupboard and land on an unfortunate victim. Pumpkins are really heavy and can do some nasty damage to your foot before they will break on the ground. Little kids can become seriously injured, so take the time to put them in a safe spot before carving them up.
After the pumpkins are bought and the family is ready for some high quality pumpkin carving, lay newspaper out on the ground so that the pumpkin juice won’t make the ground sticky or stain the cement. It is a good idea to hollow out pumpkins on the ground, because if you drop a knife, it only his a few inches to the ground. The distance from a table top to the ground is enough speed for that knife to slice right through the middle of a naked foot.
When going for the first cut, teach your kids to never cut with a knife blade toward your body. Always cut away so that if the knife ever slips, it won’t jab you or cut something. It’also a good idea if you have a little kid that is gung-ho with a knife to hold their hands steady and guide them through the whole cutting process. Be a smart parent and teach them how to do it and guide them the whole way. Tell them they can do it when they get older. That’a good excuse for anything they want to do that you don’t agree with.
Now, when the kids start to pull the guts out of the pumpkin, make sure that all of that gooey mess is thrown away into a trash can. If that stuff is left out, little kids could get into it and really make themselves sick. Also, the seeds can get lodged in their throats, so just make sure that it is out of reach of small children. And for larger people, slipping in pumpkin goo and landing on your butt, while hysterical and amusing to others, will hurt really badly when it happens. Save yourself a few f-bombs and clean it up.
After the pumpkin is hollowed out and all carved and ready to show, teach your kids not to mess with the fire inside of the pumpkin. Never leave a pumpkin lit inside for a long period of time because that is just an accident waiting to happen. There are several scenarios that could easily happen of kids knocking it over and starting the house on fire, or even just burning themselves.
These are just some simple safety precautions to protect yourself and little kids from getting hurt doing something that is a tradition. Carving pumpkins is a memorable activity that will only bring your family fun if the proper safety precautions are taken.
