EverydayCommentary: Knives and Kids

So I thought now that I do a little politics on the site by covering government issues that impact knives, I would wade into another controversial topic—parenting. I have two boys, one is 15 and the other is 10. Both have knives and both have used knives to varying degrees. My youngest son regularly uses his knives, as he is quite fond of going into the woods and hacking stuff down. We own the woods and it is pretty overgrown so more power to him. He also really enjoys carving and has two different carving knives. Using tools, especially tools that some view as dangerous, has been really good for both boys. It has taught them how to use a tool, how to be responsible, and how to be careful. And this led me to think about kids and knives more closely.

If you haven’t been tuned in, since COVID kids younger than high school have been experiencing record amounts of behavioral health issues. This makes sense. The COVID shut downs were the most disruptive event in US history in terms of impact on schooling. Neither the Depression nor the World Wars had as widespread of an impact. The loss of socializtion and learning is something we will likely see impacts of for a generation, especially if a kid was at a critical time in their development. My 10 year old was in kindergarten at the time and so his learning loss is profound. His entire cohort (that is the educational term for the “class of 2025” for example) nationwide has measurable learning loss, even now five years later.

It is one of the great topics to write about. People might quibble on specifics, but we all agree that the more positive exposure kids have to knife use is a good thing,

Read the whole thing at EverydayCommentary.com

https://www.everydaycommentary.com/www.everydaycommentary.com/2025/6/15/knives-and-kids