AIBU - nerf machine gun

[KernowMother]

The only thing my 7yo DS would like for Christmas is the Nerf machine gun

Husband says I am being a 'bleeding heart liberal', I feel it's horrible.

Really need some input on this one ... is anyone else in the same position?

Yabu

it's a toy

ya probably bu

shooting is a useful skill AND a sport

anyway we have some nerf guns and they are fun, except for trying to round up all the cartridges before the dog chews them

My 12 year old has 3 Nerf guns. I HATE them but he still plays with them. I also hate the click-clack noise as he dismantles it and put it back together again/load it with the stupid orange foamy bullets/fires bullets. He is asking for a BB gun now but I won't buy one. x

We have a house full of them - is your objection to the mess (those bullets get EVERYWHERE!) or ideological. If the latter, YABU - my DC are the loveliest gentlest, most compassionate & empathetic people imaginable in real life - in games, they most like shooting guns.

in fact I think you should get him an airgun and shoot some rabbits together - my 11yo loves this (she is made of slightly more robust stuff than me though)

yabu
it looks like the kind if thing a child would love

I'm kind of with you on this issue that I don't think any replica gun is a suitable toy.

But:

• It depends on the child (maturity)
• Saying 'No' and finding reasons why he can't have it is difficult. My SIL was really anti-any guns, and found it really hard to implement the policy of 'non-violence'

Got my son a Nerf Gun (not the one linked though) for Christmas - YABU, I can't wait for a go on it.

Thanks everyone, not long had DC3 and still all hormonal, protective and sensitive ... hence why I posted hear for voices of reason.

Objection was/is ideological, but can see that it is a toy, shooting is a sport (have shot clays myself in the past with some friends) and he will/would bloody well love it.

Thanks :)

And he will love YOU for it!

My ds (aged 6) wants one too. I hate them on principal but have to admit I had cap guns as a child which I loved and still remember fondly yet grew up to be a vegetarian and a pacifist. How mental is that?

Despite this, I am a hypocrite and my ds will not be getting one. He is not empathetic and needs to learn a bit more compassion before we "arm" him.

Nerf guns are tolerable, I draw the line at cap guns, BB guns, and anything that resembles a real gun (at a glance). You have to choose your battles!

Oh, but YANBU if you want to avoid it on Value for Money grounds alone. They are amazingly overpriced toys.

And don't forget to buy a spare back of bullets (sigh).

YANBU. I really don't consider guns to be suitable toys tbh. Sorry, I realise I'm disagreeing with the majority on here, but JMO.

not even water pistols?

wish it was summer and we could play with the super soaker thing :(

how long until summer?

nope.YANBU. don't do guns in any way shape or form. give me v bad vibes indeed.

note water pistols, supr soakers or nerfs. make me shuddder.

Slightly OT, but have you noticed that the reviews on your link are pretty dreadful, and say that it breaks really quickly.

(Might have more success with your DH as an argument, by the sound of it!)

Ooh! There was another thread about this, Xmas section, and the Vulcan was dissed there quite badly.

Oh I am so pleased at the number of you who also feel that, at the end of the day, YABU. I actually don't feel you are being 'unreasonable' at all, but the mere fact you 'suffer' twinges of feeling that a GUN as a toy is unsuitable is the the key to the fact you will educate your DCs to be able to recognise the difference between what real guns can do and what the joy of 'throwing a rock and hitting something' feels like to the caveman inside most of us!

DH was much more convinced than I was that gun-toys were baaad- I am perhaps the more realistic of us, with 2 boys aged 9 and 11, but it was he who suddenly bought two Nerf guns for them, off ebay, 6 months ago! They love them.

The house rules are based on never firing at close range and never aiming at faces. When they have their close friends around for a Nerf war, I insist on eye protection (just wrap-around protective eye gear you can pick up cheaply on ebay- or even swim goggles!) plus I, at regular intervals, casually introduce into conversation that I don't wholly approve of guns as toys! In that way they learn that it is possible to tolerate something one doesn't approve of, and I get hours of peace while they blast the bejeezus out of each other!

Result.

IS there a 'bad mummy' emoticon?!

And since I posted, I note dissent! Which is of course fair enough.

I held out for years, but by the time DS1 was about 8 or so, the tide was so heavily turned against my 'objection', bearing in mind even the mildest DS game modern boys play involve a degree of shoot 'em up, don't they?- meant it was better for me to allow it, with caveats!

Thanks Ragged, that is very helpful!

Thanks everyone, very helpful indeed.

I just don't know how it's practical to completely ban gun-type toys.

DSs are obsessed with "PowPows" (2yo's word): gun-shaped sticks. Do those of you who ban all gun toys ban those too? What about when they build guns out of Lego?

DS's topic this term has been WWII. He spent ages over a picture (he mostly refused to draw anything until 2 months ago, so I was quite pleased with this effort). DS showed it to his teacher explaining that it was lots of people shooting at each other. Teacher tried to gently remonstrate how one shouldn't draw pictures of people shooting each other when I piped up "Oh it's World War II, isn't it?" She didn't have a reply to that.

What's DS supposed to do, pretend that guns weren't involved in WWII?