Your mother probably warned you over and over again throughout your childhood not to run with scissors. I can still hear those words as echoes of my past. My mother and my father both warned my siblings and me about this hazard. And, for a good reason. The warning has merit. Every year, there are accidents involving kids and scissors. Getting poked in the eyes is considered the biggest risk. But, kids can also fall and get stabbed with scissors. In my research, I learned about a little girl who fell and was stabbed in the neck by a pair of scissors. She died from the injury. Because these cutting tools and kids don’t always mix well, safety scissors were introduced some years ago. These were designed with blunt tips to help prevent poking and stabbing injuries. But, are kids’ safety scissors really safe?
Accident Statistics
If you check around, you’ll find statistics and horror stories galore about kids using scissors. You may know of some stories yourself. But, when it comes to statistics about kids’ safety scissors, there aren’t any. That fact alone would make any parent or grandparent feel reasonably comfortable about handing their youngsters a pair of these blunt-tipped cutters.
Accidents Still Happen
However, there are two basic types of kids’ safety scissors. The first type is made of hard plastic. But, attached along the inside of each scissor is a thin piece of metal. This metal allows the scissors to effortlessly slice through paper. Unfortunately, the metal also allows this type of safety scissors to quickly cut through hair and other materials as well.
The second type of kids’ safety scissors are made only of hard plastic. Each scissor is 100% plastic; there are no metal pieces to slice materials. The plastic does the trick without risking harm. Plastic safety scissors for kids won’t even cut hair or skin!
A Personal Story
To answer the question, “Are kids’ safety scissors really safe?”, you really have to consider the two basic types. The completely plastic cutters are really the best bet for keeping young ones safe. The scissors that have the thin metal pieces attached to them can still hurt kids. Here’s a case in point:
My cousin Annie was having some quality time with her four-year-old one afternoon. She was teaching him to write numbers and shapes. Kal was then coloring and cutting the shapes out of plain paper. Being a responsible mother, Annie had bought a pair of kids’ safety scissors for her preschooler to use. But, they were the type that sported the metal on the inside of each blade.
While she was sitting there supervising her son, Kal somehow got one of his pointer fingers in the way of the blades as he was cutting the paper. The result? The metal nearly cut the fleshy end of his finger completely off. With blood running down his little arm, Annie wrapped a clean cloth over the injured finger and held it tightly while she rushed him to the nearest emergency room. The doctor was able to glue his finger back together and Kal is healing now.
Conclusion
To answer the question, are kids’ safety scissors really safe? Annie’s incident with a pair of (supposedly) safe kids’ scissors could possibly be placed under the category “Rare Accident.” But still, it shows that thin metal cuts more than just paper and hair.
The truly safe scissors designed for kids are the ones that are made completely of hard plastic. The worst that can happen is getting a finger pinched, but not cut.
