Guns N Kids
When my son was born, both my wife and I agreed that we would discourage him from playing with toy guns. We simply wouldn't have them in the house.
I'm not talking about hunting. No, I mean games of "cops and robbers" or "cowboys and indians." We were nervous about the effects of that kind of imaginary violence on our child.
In other words, we were new parents who were totally clueless.
Because since then we have realized two things. First, there is not one darn thing you can do to prevent a boy from playing shoot-em-up games. From almost the time he learned to walk, my son was running around saying "Bang Bang" with a spoon or Lego or some other object in his hand.
I have no idea where he learned it. Maybe it's genetic. Maybe prehistoric toddlers ran around their caves with a stick in their hand yelling "Bonk Bonk!"
Even when we took away the toys, he found other things to turn into guns. He would even roll his napkin up into a tube and use that to shoot bad guys.
That leads me to the second thing we realized. Playing with toy guns is not going to warp our kids' minds. I believe it does just the opposite, as a fertile imagination can only be beneficial to a child. Shooting outlaws and monsters is not going to turn them into homicidal psychopaths or make them indifferent to human life.
I should've just remembered my own childhood. Yup, that's a 7-year-old me in that photo. I turned out okay. Right?
Labels: guns, imagination, kids, play
Permalink posted by Idaho Dad at 12:01 AM
19 Comments:
I absolutely agree with you!! Boys will turn ANYTHING into guns...anything
I never was that interested in guns, I liked swords. And any old stick can be a sword.
(actually I liked quarterstaffs even better, and quarterstafs are old sticks!)
My kids both like swords. They have several full-size plastic ones. Not to mention five different kinds of light-sabers!
Man, you look TOUGH in that picture. Your face says, "Don't mess with me, haus."
As you know, Seth is 5, but he has shown no interest in gun play. I'm not sure he even knows what one is.
Same senerio here. We do not buy toy guns. The boys turn everything else into guns, and even build them out of legos.
I guess if they are using their brain to build one, at least they are using their brain!
Our only rule with "home-made guns" is that you shoot imaginary villans.
THEY DO NOT GET POINTED AT ANY PERSON OR PET!
They have done very well with that rule over the past 12 years...
We've been pretty "anti-toy-gun" also. But we have neighbors who have little boys. Darn those neighbors who let their kids run around the neighborhood wielding massive amounts of toy firepower.
I finally had to let my kid get a Nerf crossbow thingy...it was as far as I'd go, really. Last night, he broke the window in his room with it..
darn.
We don't have toy guns. NO real banishment, it just hasn't happened.
Instead the boy is all about light sabers. And you know, for a toy, you can cut a large swath of destruction with a plastic light saber!
Much bigger carnage than with a toy gun.
My son started eating his grilled cheese sandwiches a special way in order to form a gun. I think it is in the boy's DNA whether we like it or not.
It's not just boys either. Girls do it to. Given that my dad worked with the cops, I was fascinated with guns. I turned out semi-alright!
boy.imp actually ran around the house using his toy cars as a gun...
so we turned him onto Voltes V (a 1970s Anime show) and now he runs around using his toy cars as a laser sword!
Yup, mine chewed his toast into the shape of a gun when he was 5. Sheesh!
We've managed to stay away from guns so far. No interest really.
Swords are a different story.
I was anti- toy guns too. It worked pretty well. Other things could suffice for the "adventurer" and warrior mentality.
It's a different world we live in. Guns don't represent as much innocence as they did when we were growing up.
We also are not fans of the toy guns and thought we would somehow prevent our son from playing those kinds of games. HA!!!!! Boys like to play "hero" and sometimes that means shooting "bad guys" or doing martial arts on them or whatever. Our son knows that as long as he's not hurting anyone else, than that kind of play is fine. Even my daughter gets in on the action!
Oh, and you look a little like a young "Dennis the Menace" in that picture.
That's you?! That's a really clear photo for the Old West.
Hoping you're feeling better today.
We teach our girls that guns should be respected. My husband is a deputy, so we do have guns...locked up...in our house. He shows them how to clean them and all that. I really don't want anything to do with them...just want to know enough to be safe with them.
My sister on the other hand is so to the extreme that she wouldn't even let my nieces and nephews play with squirt guns!
I agree with you, I read it once in some education or psycology paper too, no matter how much they play with guns it won't make them inclined to go shoot people.
Our little one do the same, hide and goes phew phew phew, but then when you had a dad who was a copper and played hide and seek and do this you can't expect less LOL.
He heard us talking about killing ants once and now unfortunately 'kills' every thing he stomps his foot on, even toys, he don't really make the connection or understand but I'm sure if other people see him doing that they will worry LOL.
ditto for girls and Barbies. even for her boy cousin and Barbies. and for me as a girl playing with guns. i loved guns. hate them now.
Love your blog - just discovered it and will return.
cheers!
leila
I use electrical tape and half inch pvc pipes to make toy guns. I made one that uses a caulk gun as the frame and you can even field strip
it. I also don't have a homicidal personality
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