Responsible Parenting: "Playing Guns?"

[MojoTexas]

I "played guns" as a kid, as did all my friends and cousins, and we all grew up into normal well-adjusted citizens. As we got older we made the transition to BB guns, then real firearms.

There you have it, you transitioned to real firearms. To the liberal Brady bunchers you are a SOCIOPATH.

Heh...what's even cooler is that my uncle was career Army, and my cousins had lifesize inert training rifles...a M16 and an AK-47. We had a blast with those, although in hindsight we probably shouldn't have had such realistic looking "toys".

[TexasGal]

When us 50 somethings were playing "guns" as kids our heroes were The Lone Ranger, The Rifleman, and perhaps characters on Bonanza, Big Valley, etc. These shows had a very clear good guys/bad guys message. The bad guy was bad, plain and simple. He had no redeeming qualities. If you will watch the cartoons and video games of today, they could not be farther from these. The good guys have episodes of being bad guys. The bad guys are often portrayed as just misunderstood good guys. When my son got his first set of legos, the first thing he made was a gun and pointed it at me with a triumphant smile and said "Bang"! The fact is boys especially have a innate interest in guns. The great challenge these days is how will busy parents in two income households provide enough support to overcome the mass of confusing ideas our kids see every time the tv is on or they play video games as to just how guns are used by the good guys even when they are angry and have been personally wronged. Schools are using an equally confusing message. Zero tolerance means the intent is ignored and an innocent kid who was just drawing a picture gets in just as much trouble as the kid who was thinking something that really did need discipline.
Just my 2 cents.

[Outbreaker]

My wife as against the boys playing guns. She said when the oldest was born "If you are going to be teaching him to hunt and shoot I do not want toy guns in the house to confuse him". I picked my battles and let that one slide.....knowing it would not last.

On his second birthday he got his first set of Lego's and within 5 min had BUILT his first gun and went around shooting everything with the lego gun. SHe gave up her objections at that point.

[chabouk]

Not only does my son play guns, but he buys his own. ( ... ) His cub scout pack .....

Wow, you have one kid in the service, and another in Cub Scouts? You're as bad as me, with one who just turned 7, and another about to turn 23. The middle three range from 14 to 20.

Nothing like a mid-life surprise to change your perspective.

[davidtx]

You might want to check your local school policy. My wife works for Austin ISD and their policy is that everyone involved in a fight will be disciplined (unless they are completely passive). She and her Assistant Principal really hate the policy, but are forced to enforce it. If I still had school age kids, I'd have to think real hard about fighting the policy or home schooling.

Just trying to point out that it might not be as easy as "taking care of it with the teacher".

[davidtx]

Not only does my son play guns, but he buys his own. ( ... ) His cub scout pack .....

Wow, you have one kid in the service, and another in Cub Scouts? You're as bad as me, with one who just turned 7, and another about to turn 23. The middle three range from 14 to 20.

Nothing like a mid-life surprise to change your perspective.

I'm the oldest of five. My baby sister is 21 years younger than me. Same parents. Funny, but the age difference doesn't seem so great anymore.

[srothstein]

Not only does my son play guns, but he buys his own. ( ... ) His cub scout pack .....

Wow, you have one kid in the service, and another in Cub Scouts? You're as bad as me, with one who just turned 7, and another about to turn 23. The middle three range from 14 to 20.

Nothing like a mid-life surprise to change your perspective.

I have 7 kids, three boys aged 32, 26, and 10 and 4 girls aged 22, 20, 17, and 15. Second son in reserves, oldest daughter is a vet using her GI bill for college, third daughter is planning on enlisting, and youngest son wants to be an Army Ranger. Second daughter is also in college full time and third daughter is dual enrolled in high school and college.

And my 34th anniversary is coming up in three weeks. I don't know who is crazier, her for staying with me that long or me for wanting that many kids (i was the fourth of six myself).

[03Lightningrocks]

I think the idea that "playing guns" leads to sociopathic behavior is nonsense. I "played guns" as a kid, as did all my friends and cousins, and we all grew up into normal well-adjusted citizens.

Does your psychiatrist agree?

I played superman but never jumped off the barn thinking I could fly.

Well, I played Superman, jumping off of the garage roof with a towel tied around my neck. My first lessons in gravity and the falseness of TV. I tried it again with the towel acting as a parachute. I learned another lesson: sprained ankles hurt.

I also sat on an upside-down lawn chair, using the extended legs as joysticks. Unfortunately, that didn't make me a fighter pilot later in life.

OMG!!!!! I think I knew you. We used to be able to talk you into anything! Remember that time we talked you into eating that bug??? I still think the only reason your superman cape didn't work is that it was the wrong color. Wow... those were that days!

[Dragonfighter]

<SNIP>
When they were in the simulators for the airplanes, his favorite position was the gunner aboard the TBM model. Not interested in the pilot's position, he wanted the machine guns.

Well, happiness IS a belt fed weapon.

[rm9792]

Still have a scar over my eye from an arrow grazing it. They were round tips but still hurt. The stupidity of youth, we used real bows, arrows and bb guns. Also had horses and wagons. Surprised i lived....

[gregthehand]

When they were in the simulators for the airplanes, his favorite position was the gunner aboard the TBM model. Not interested in the pilot's position, he wanted the machine guns.

My grandfather flew in TBM Avengers off the USS Enterprise during WWII. He was the radio/radar man that sat in the belly of the plane. When they made bombing runs he was supposed to guide the plane in right before the target, and then release the torpedo. After that he would turn around and lay on a piece of 3/8" thick steel plate and under the plane they had a .30 cal machine gun and a little window. The plane would bank away from the ship it was bombing and he was supposed to rake the deck with machine gun fire. He doesn't really talk about the combat missions but he did like the training. He said back then they had a practice turret that they would roll out on the deck when they weren't launching planes. Instead of machine guns they had shotguns in the thing and they would launch clays and the gunners would practice shooting them. He was also supposed to be on Flight 19 after the war but when they were making the planes ready the wind slammed the door on his thumb and broke it. They said he couldn't fly and do his job with a broken thumb so he was grounded that day. In the movie they had a radio/radar man that said he just didn't want to fly and refused to train. This ticks him off to this day as he said he thought it made him look like a coward or something. He tried to fly even after the broken thumb but the flight docs wouldn't let him. Had he gotten his way and gone he would have never been heard or seen from again. When I was about eleven I asked him what he would have done if he could go back in time and he said he would not have broken his thumb and he would have gone with them.

To this day he won't ride in a small plane.

[particle]

I'm probably different than a lot of people here, but I taught my little boy (almost 6) to NEVER point guns at people, which includes his toy guns. He is free to point them at anything else in the house - shoot the ceiling fan light, for example, and I turn it off if he hits it with the remote control. When he gets a little older, and I'm confident he can tell the difference between a real gun and a fake gun, then maybe I'll relax with the "cops and robbers" game play. But I'd rather train him to be safe with guns by starting him out with the fake stuff. Then, maybe he'll be a little more prepared by the time he encounters the real thing.

He even teaches his little sister (just turned 5) that she can't point toy guns at people.

He doesn't like to play with the boys across the street because they tried to tell him their play guns were real guns - he didn't wan anything to do with those kids at that point. Fine by me, they tried to steel my daughter's scooter.

[stroo]

We have a lot of boys my son's age in our neighborhood. When he was 7-10, none of the other parents would give their kids toy guns while my son had way too many. So he became the arms dealer for the neighborhood. He would bring out his guns so all the kids could play combat or cops and robbers.

He is 12 now and all the other parents have given in. Now the boys have airsoft battles although when they started it was initiated by a couple of boys from another family and I had to insist that everyone wear adequate eye protection. Some of the other parents didn't think about that at all although they all supported me when they found out.

[Dragonfighter]

I'm probably different than a lot of people here, but I taught my little boy (almost 6) to NEVER point guns at people, which includes his toy guns. He is free to point them at anything else in the house - shoot the ceiling fan light, for example, and I turn it off if he hits it with the remote control. When he gets a little older, and I'm confident he can tell the difference between a real gun and a fake gun, then maybe I'll relax with the "cops and robbers" game play. But I'd rather train him to be safe with guns by starting him out with the fake stuff. Then, maybe he'll be a little more prepared by the time he encounters the real thing.

He even teaches his little sister (just turned 5) that she can't point toy guns at people.

He doesn't like to play with the boys across the street because they tried to tell him their play guns were real guns - he didn't wan anything to do with those kids at that point. Fine by me, they tried to steel my daughter's scooter.

Only a parent knows what it takes to be a good steward of his/her children. I don't know that I would discourage this kind of play in my own children (all girls though) but I applaud your choices here. My son in law is letting the grand kids play with air soft but they are supervised and only point at the targets. A sweep or pointing it at a sibling, cat or chicken gets it taken away. He's a rookie himself but is doing well in this arena.

Good call particle.

[chabouk]

And my 34th anniversary is coming up in three weeks. I don't know who is crazier, her for staying with me that long or me for wanting that many kids (i was the fourth of six myself).

Here's to you and your lovely missus, sir!