Toy guns in the house

[PeppermintCream]

I have an old friend coming to visit. We haven't seen each other for four years and I'm really excited.
She is bringing her two boys. I know that she does not agree with children playing with toy guns. My children have some toy guns (thanks to fairgrounds, pound land and grandparents)
Should I a) hide all toy guns during the visit b) leave them in their current place, where they probably will get played with c) bury them at the bottom of the toy box and leave it to chance d) any other suggestions
Please don't turn this into a toy gun debate, I respect my friend's view and don't want to offend her. Thanks

Leave them!

As a parent who hates toy guns I would really appreciate them being put out of the way if I was visiting you

Leave them.

Leave them. She is entitled to her views, but I'm sure she wouldn't expect you to rearrange your house to accomodate them. I don't approve of young girls wearing make up, but I would expect it to be erradicated from any house I stayed in!

Ask her.

Agree, leave them.

She is perfectly entitled to dislike toy guns, but shouldn't expect everyone else to pander to her dislikes. I don't like or drink alcohol, but I don't expect people to stop drinking it when I'm in their house.

Toy guns are banned from my house. But I wouldn't expect any friends to hide theirs when we visit.

I'd do C

If they are easy to hide I would hide them.

If she were vegetarian, I wouldn't cook meat while she was visiting.

If she were scared of my cats, I would lock them out of the house (within reason).

It's called being a good host.

It doesn't make any difference whether parents ban toy guns or not. I didn't have them in the house, and my son would make them out of bendy straws, stickle bricks and lego anyway! I'd say leave them, it's your house.

I'd do (c) too.

I have a boy who has toy guns.

Now I am a bit worried. Every child that comes round here has to play Nerf Gun Wars with my two, i have no idea whether any of them are allowed to play with guns.

DSs are 10 and 12 though.

Leave them.

if you don't want to offend her then move them.

If I were you I'd remove them.

I wouldn't be able to relax in case finding them turned into awkwardness. Not saying that she wld be huffy, just that would be a sour note.

If she's a good friend I'd put them away if I thought it would upset her.

In the same way I wouldn't drink myself if I invited a friend to dinner who was teetotal on principle (religious reasons or whatever), and would make vegan food for all if I was hosting a vegan.

Depending on the age of your dc I'd probably explain why I was putting them away rather than just hiding them. DD knows that MiL doesn't like toy weapons (Quaker sympathies) - children are perfectly able to be polite & respond to guests' preferences. (Obviously that won't work if they're pre-schoolers!)

Mutt, yes, I wouldn't drink.

I have relatives who are teetotal and I wouldn't drink in front of them. (Not that they would want a drink, or really mind me drinking, unless I got tipsy)

I'm not sure how far I would extend the rule.

If a friend didn't let her DC watch TV, I would limit it while she was staying, or pretend to DC it was broken. Until it had been raining all afternoon and the DC started fighting. Then I would stick on a DVD.

I don't let my boys have guns that look like guns (I don't make a big thing about it; they just get binned lost pretty quickly), but my boys do have Nerf guns for the garden.

I agree with the others about not moving the guns but Lynette makes her argument so cogently I agree with her too

As someone who doesn't allow her ds to play with guns, I wouldnt' be upset if ds played with them at someone else's house. It's just at our house I object to them being waved in my face with that aggressive face ds pulls.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your replies.

She is a very good friend, so I'm going to ask her what she would prefer.

It's important to me that she feels comfortable during the visit (she is also vegetarian, and we will not be eating meat either ).

Although my children are only small, I'm sure that I can explain to the older two (6 and 5) what's going on, and maybe try and teach them about considering others, being a good host etc They youngest will have to lump it, not that she really plays with them anyway.

Thanks Mutt, I have a similar attitude towards toy guns. I'm aware that my friend does not.

Although we talk regularly on the phone and email, I am acutely aware that our parenting styles are different, and the long distance nature of the friendship, sometimes makes it hard to judge the extent of the differences. When I talk to her this evening, she'll probably tell me to not worry about it, and if she does want me to hide them away, I'm also cool with that. Our friendship is much more valuable that the plastic tat that is in the toy box (remembering wistfully, a time when I dreamt about having only fair trade, wooden toys, then reality hits hard as I trip over spider-man)

I would do a sweep and remove the guns
There's lots if other toys to play with
Hope it goes well

I would remove them too.