My niece will have her fifth birthday this winter. My nephew will be two. I bought a pocket knife for each of them, when they were born. My sister doesn´t like my niece to have a knife either.
My niece already figured out that Uncle Max is they guy who can help her to fix almost anything <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. She likes the concept of doing things on her own while getting only as much help as required (which used to be more than she realized). I guess I´ll have teach to her and my nephew about important things too. But I still hope that I can start before they are 13.