To not want toy guns

[yesiamwhoyouthinkiam]

I know I will get a lot of 'boys will use sticks as guns, it's just what they do' responses but I wondered if there were any other parents here who have successfully managed to at least keep toy guns out of their houses?

My DS (almost 4) has already started making shooting actions, talking about 'good shot' and mentioned 'killing monsters with guns' which I know he has picked up from nursery and my DHs tendency to let him watch slightly unsuitable cartoons (scooby doo, super ted).

I have tried explaining that guns are just not nice things to have but clearly it's all just a game to DS.

Was quite aghast at his similar aged cousin threatening to shoot my DS this week.

Anyone been able to successfully keep guns away from their kids (boys I suppose) even after they have started school?

[BookABooSue]

At first I didn't buy toy guns for DS then two things happened.

1. I realised I was tying myself in knots trying to work out where to draw the line - was a laser/Buzz Light year gun OK? Was a bow and arrow OK? What about water guns? I'm a firm believer in being consistent and realised that I couldn't impose such a restriction with any consistency. If it was about banning any type of weapon then that meant playing Vikings was out, as was being a space ranger, etc etc
   
2. One of the many parenting books I read made a very good argument for allowing imaginative play that included guns. The reasoning was along the lines of empowering DCs to explore emotions, and not making them feel ashamed of their desire to play in that way. I found that logic much more compelling.

[aciddrops]

How about paint balling for your teenagers?

[cdwales]

Ditto we just never had them - and GPs on board too. Now they do as YPs because we live on a farm...

[sashh]

I don't like the ease with which we normalise weapons that can instantly kill a person

So no Dr's and nurses play sets then, or vets. No toy cars or motorbikes. Someone mentioned light sabres - are they allowed?

Does he eat with a knife and fork? Do you know how many knife crimes there are?

This whole thing about 'kids will make guns from anything' - there's an easy way round that - don't let them. We weren't, so didn't.

Really?

Not at school? At friends houses? Playing out?

[SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker]

We didn't have them in my house. We didn't have water guns either, we got pool noodles that shoot water, they work better IMO and float.

[aciddrops]

Would the anti gun parents allow their children to go to a lazer quest party?

[RiverTam]

yes, it's bollocks, of course a child's imaginative play is not negatively impacted on by not having toy guns, what utter nonsense.

[yesiamwhoyouthinkiam]

It is Bollox though?

[scottishmummy]

Oh i can assure you,having read the whole thread,that's not the oddest assertion on thread
By a country mile
Theres a great deal of very silly assertions and handwringing going on

[yesiamwhoyouthinkiam]

I think the most odd thing about this whole conversation has been the insistence that by not having gun replica toys in the house I would be damaging my child's creativity.

I guess those that believe this thinking should hot foot it to the nearest toy shop and get one now so that my child no longer risks being damaged?

Odd.

I mean clearly that is plain Bollox?

[Bambambini]

Many many kids do use their fingers, bananas, toast, Lego etc. There is nothing unusual about that either.

[ouryve]

And DS1 (despite ASD) is fine with the imaginative play.

If he sees a banana in a fruit bowl, it always gets turned into a phone. Never a gun, though. I don't think that's ever occurred to him.

[ouryve]

Mine have never had toy guns.
They have never made guns with their fingers.

[JassyRadlett]

Personally, I think that imaginative play is good and toy guns encourage imagination and co-operative play with other children.

Personally, I think this is nonsense. If anything, by providing toys suited to certain types of play you are constraining imaginative play into certain types of role playing, in a way that some (but not the majority of props) tend to do. As you set out, gun play can tend to follow pre-defined 'scripts'.

Also, just because you don't think a reason is good doesn't make it irrelevant. For all anyone knows, it's your judgement of good and bad reasons that's flawed.

[Bambambini]

"No one has given a good reason why they don't let their kids play with guns."

Really? You can't see why folk would rather not encourage or buy their kids guns when they are little?

[aciddrops]

No one has given a good reason why they don't let their kids play with guns. They just say that they don't like it or it is distasteful. Personally, I think that imaginative play is good and toy guns encourage imagination and co-operative play with other children. Also, when kids play with toy guns they tend to run and hide etc which is good physical activity.

[Bambambini]

Not many kids actually have realstic looking guns like kalishnikovs and AK47s though - more nerf, buzz lightyear etc. Mine have elastic band and potato guns as well as countless
other weapons. I started off against guns too. Fair enough to keep to your guns though.

[Sallystyle]

Mine didn't make guns out of things either. They knew that play was not allowed so they didn't do it.

Out of my sight? who knows. As long as I didn't have to watch it I was happy enough.

[SilentCharisma]

This whole thing about 'kids will make guns from anything' - there's an easy way round that - don't let them. We weren't, so didn't.

Very liberal lefty, but hard on discipline in the areas they believed in my folks...

[Hulababy]

Oh and dd had a laser quest party last year when she was 11. Only one girl couldn't come - I suspect due to the gun/shooting aspect.

[Sallystyle]

Bullshit Knee.

I am not judging at all. I have no problem judging and admitting to it, but I am not judging people who allow toy guns in their house at all.

As I don't think it is damaging what is there for me to judge? I just don't like seeing it but if it's not in my house I couldn't care less.

[Hulababy]

I didn't want realistic looking guns in the house and never have had. Dd is now 12.

But she has had nerf guns and water guns. She's also had play archery sets and swords in the past. And she has 4 wands from Wizarding World in her room, latest one bought only last week. They are all (if real) potentially lethal weapons.

Realistic looking guns and tbh realistic weapons I don't like, but plastic/foam toys I have no issue over

[JustAShopGirl]

admiral of the fleet sending hundreds of enemy sailors to their watery grave, v. a soldier going bang bang to kill one at a time....

battleship is a war strategy game (along with Risk, Stratego etc) he plays at killing whether he knows it or not... I would lump it with the toy guns myself.

[StillWishihadabs]

Actually That is not completely true. When he has friends round they occasionally want to play "war" I am not such a killjoy as to ban this. However ds gets very bored of these games quite quickly.

[StillWishihadabs]

Ds is ten. He doesn't pretend to kill anyone. Not on the computer not in imaginative play. He likes strategy so we play battleships and chess. He has seen death, he doesn't want to play at killing.