My daughter recently started using a fountain pen at school and has decided she likes it.

I have a Pelikan M405 in my collection that I have only used once and find just slightly too small for my hand so I have decided to give it to her.

Hopefully she will appreciate it and use it.

Kind regards to all.

Not mad but for sure you are trusting (not to say I wouldn't do the same thing). How old is your daughter? I have a Pelikano FP that is for beginners that I am going to let my son try once I get the carts for it.

Good move. Start them off with a Pelikan.

I had a Pelikan 400 that I also did not use - I gave it to my niece for her 10th birthday. She absolutely loves it and is very careful of it.

For Christmas I also gave her a Pelikano Jr (to take to school).

Oooooh! Nice pen for a young lady! You didn't mention how old she is, but if she is in her early teens she probably will value it.

I can remember giving my oldest son a pair of much adored JBL studio monitors for his apartment. He sold them!??!!!

My Daughter's 13, so I am trusting her to look after it!!

You need to start them off sometime! I've given my daughter several pens and she is very careful with them. She still primarily uses mechanical pencils at school. I haven't given her a Pel yet, that will probably wait until she becomes more serious about using fountain pens!

Mad ? No you are a loving father BUT you should first give her something to learn and respect and then move her to bigger and better.
I would buy her a Pelikan 150 for about 40$ and then once she likes it and feels comfortable with it move her to the M400.

Would you adopt me?

I am 47 and house trained

I started my daughter off on a $20 Lamy Smile. She takes good care of it at home, but I don't allow her to take it to school (she's in third grade).

She does have a cheaper quality Online FP, bought for about $8, and I have just now allowed her to take that one to school. I figure it's a good experiment to see how she takes care of pens so I'll know when to upgrade for her, and to what. I have also bought one of the Kulturs that Wizergig had up for sale (thank you, Wizergig!). It's about the same price as the Lamy, and I'm saving it as a gift the next time the occasion arises to give my daughter something "really cool".

She is showing very strong, early signs of FP addiction -- <sniff> I'm so proud

I was only a year older when my mother gave me her Parker 51. Admittedly, though, I had been using fountain pens since I was nine.

I used the 51 all through school with no problems apart from the time I dropped it down the back of an exhibition case at the Geological Museum in London. The attendant was not particularly keen on my request that he take the case apart so that I could retrieve my pen; happily I was able to reach down and just get it by stretching out over the top of the case.

Sadly, it isn't just a question of the responsible nature of the young person, but also of their friends and acquaintances. You can be a pretty careful kid and still have a prized possession get away from you...High School isn't a great match with a $200 pen, I fear. But...maybe it'll be ok. I had some good pens in HS but not that good...

Maybe if she really loves it, she'll leave it at home and get a Pelikano to take to school...?

Yes...you are stone friggin' out of your mind. In these perilous days and times I would NEVER let a child of mine out of the door with a mere Pel 405. I believe our children deserve nothing LESS than a Rotring 600.

If it was good enough for Wesley Snipes to pry the eye out of a prison warden in DEMOLITION MAN, it is good enough for a 13 year old female to disembowel some wanna be porn monger...or worse yet...A 14 year old pubescent tweener male classmate...

Bill

"Am I Mad?"

I hasten to point out the community you pose this query to. Rather in line with a fish asking of it's fellows, "Am I damp?"

Oh my. Did you put him up for adoption?

Kath

If you have anything else with ink too small for your hand, Izzy, we'll all be glad to help you out...

Ah yes, the Rotring 600. The pen sidewalks fear. The best multi-purpose device created. Part fountain pen/chisel/crossbow bolt it is the pen most likely to get you kicked off a US airplane flight. Truly, what other pen gives you the opportunity to express yourself so recklessly while simultaneously providing you with a quality work out. If Mont Blanc inspires self-indulgent respect than the Rotring inspires self-preserving fear in all who see it in your hand.

To Izzy:
When I was 13 my father gave me a new Nikon 35mm camera and sparked a lifelong passion of mine. I still have that camera and it would be the very last thing I would sell if I fell upon hard times. I can't say that your daughter will react with anything like the same passion, but I doubt she will ever forget your gift to her.

As anyone who comes to a site like this knows the importance of words, and the manner in which we transcribe our thoughts into a form we can share with the world about us. What you have given to your daughter is not only a portion of your own interest you have given her a method of writing and expression that is so rare as to be almost unique in the modern world. In the worst case you have lost a pen, in the best case you have sparked in a young woman the idea that our means of self-expression can be found in a variety of ways. To me the value of that is worth the risk of losing a pen.

Touché! This has got to be one of the funniest (and most accurate) responses I've seen to date!!!

-Clive

oops

I would trust her and let her enjoy it!

May I point out that my son uses his Pelikan (College Sophomore) and in class one of his friends turned the piston knob and emptied the entire ink load of Noodlers Blue into the cap! John took it back to find out what had happened and ended in the same condition as his friend. He said that he looked like he'd strangled a SMURF!

So trusting her friends may be the real issue.

I think coffee came out of my nose............

Ernst, give her the pen but maybe "check up" on it from time to time.

I wouldn't have done that. I would have started her off with something cheaper.