Nervous - I found the sharp pointed half of a large pair of scissors on my mother's living room floor this morning. Should I not mention it?

It’s probably best to remove sharp objects from the home. She could hurt herself trying to cut paper.

Are childproof scissors still a thing? I used those in the early grades during art time in school.

I would get rid of it without telling her. That will just rile her up. She could hurt herself and others like yourself. I would carefully and surreptitiously look for the other half as well as other potential weapons. Drop them in your purse so you can get them out of the house. Leave her with one relatively harmless knife to cut food. She might even forget about those scissors. Don't bring it up so she doesn't have something to argue about or attack you with. Do you have Power of Attorney? If not, look into it. If you can get her to a neurologist or geriatric medicine doctor you could get a diagnosis. That could help you with services or Representative Payee for Social Security if you don't have it already. I wouldn't consider round tip scissors. With enough arm power behind them they could still do some damage. With Alzheimer's there's less inhibition or thinking about what they're really doing. They can be amazingly strong.

I was told to get rid of anything sharp in the house. Aggression added to adult size and strength is a dangerous situation.

My FIL's caregiver quit after he cornered her in the kitchen because he forgot who she was. He could have seriously harmed her.

Listen to your intuition.

Of course you get it out of the house. Why is this a question?

Someone with dementia is more akin to a toddler. Would you leave a weapon or knife in the reach of a small child?

I think you should trust your intuition, your sense of being nervous about a particular threat. Definitely, remove all potential weapons.

I wouldn’t say anything to her about it, but just do what needs to be done.

Well. These scissors are broken, whatever else they are, so that gives you an excellent opportunity to replace them with round-ended ones. Make them of decent quality so that your mother isn't irritated by being unable to use them.

How does your mother show aggression?

Sadly yes I am concerned about the risk. She is 87 and can be extremely aggressive. I speak from experience as my stepfather attacked a patient and a nurse with a pair of scissors whilst he was in hospital and ended up under 24 hour guard - something that was totally out of character.

Sadly yes I am concerned about the risk. She is 87 and can be extremely aggressive. I speak from experience as my stepfather attacked a patient and a nurse with a pair of scissors whilst he was in hospital and ended up under 24 hour guard - something that was totally out of character.

No, you should ask her what happened and locate the other half.

She probably tried to use the scissors to prise something apart and strained the handles off one another. If you can also find out what job it was she wanted done, perhaps you could deal with that too.

I'm sure the half-pair looked very alarming, but it isn't intrinsically more dangerous in the hands of a person with dementia than any other hefty, pointed object. Are you seriously concerned about any risk to either your mother or those around her?