Sons Of Guns
Here's a great article about boys and gunplay. Before our first child was born, my wife and I swore that we would not have guns in the house. Sometime before he was three, he started picking up sticks and shooting at things. He would also fold paper into a gun shape. Soon, everything was a gun... bananas, water bottles, TV remotes, breadsticks, Legos.
I take the blame, as I let him watch Star Wars and there was no going back from that. We came to realize, however, that the imaginative play that he engaged in was not harmful. So one Christmas he received a Star Wars blaster to go along with his light saber.
What's really interesting, and is discussed in the above article, is that our daughter isn't as interested in the gunplay. Every now and then she'll go along with her brother and blast at Storm Troopers, but she gets much more excited about princesses and dolls. Hopefully she won't be asking for an NRA Barbie anytime soon.
I take the blame, as I let him watch Star Wars and there was no going back from that. We came to realize, however, that the imaginative play that he engaged in was not harmful. So one Christmas he received a Star Wars blaster to go along with his light saber.
What's really interesting, and is discussed in the above article, is that our daughter isn't as interested in the gunplay. Every now and then she'll go along with her brother and blast at Storm Troopers, but she gets much more excited about princesses and dolls. Hopefully she won't be asking for an NRA Barbie anytime soon.
Permalink posted by Phil at 12:28 AM
3 Comments:
A very interesting article. I'm particularly interested in articles/books about raising boys, obviously, because I've got one! I just want to do what is best for him, you know?
Also, I think I'm going to link to this article, but I'll give you a link as well!
I belong to a gun club in North Georgia, and we take special pains to have interesting "shoots" for young people. Properly trained in gun safety, young people can enjoy shooting as much as any of us. A gun is a tool, no more and no less. I don't know that we have any "NRA Barbies" but we do have a women's group and we teach skeet shooting to the local 4H which includes a good many girls.
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