I know that I did not do all of but one of these things before I was 11. I didn't drive until I was 14, but I drove a stick shift on my 14th birthday. Appliance destruction was something I started on at a young age, pre-kindergarten.

I've posted elsewhere about giving SAKs to 4 boys this year, ages 10-13. Their mother of course had to mention the possibility of them stabbing each other. You simply do not learn how to do things until you are allowed to try them. I see the 12-year old, and I remember myself at that age, and the gap is tremendous, and he is most mature of the bunch. At 12, owning a knife was not a novelty to me, and the idea of mentioning stabbing was something I frowned on by them as immature. It seems to me very much like the reaction we have in the U.S. with drinking. A 21-year old suddenly with the restrictions off is often a drunken menace. In Europe, without the restrictions, the novelty has passed.