I too grew up with the theory that anything but cloth dulled scissors and as such we were not to touch my mother's sewing scissors. My husband on the other hand grew up that it was fine to cut anything with any scissors. It was so hard to break him and later my kids of this. They always had the reasoning that they didn't know those were my sewing scissors. I finally tied a yellow ribbon on the handle and to this day the scissors with the ribbon on them are mine and need to be left alone no matter where anyone sees them in the house. Since there is now no question as to which scissors are my sewing scissors there is no longer a problem with them getting used for other things.