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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not want toy guns

307 replies

yesiamwhoyouthinkiam · 24/08/2014 23:02

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?

OP posts:
scottishmummy · 25/08/2014 22:45

No one is squirming about ied
You didn't get a response cause it was lame and try too hard
Im adult,killy stuff as you put it is part of life,death,conflict,politics and tragedy.as ever

Original poster
yesiamwhoyouthinkiam · 25/08/2014 22:51

Well spotted. The use of the word 'continue' was a bit of a giveaway!

OP posts:
SugarSkully · 25/08/2014 22:52

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Hakluyt · 25/08/2014 22:53

Why is it "try too hard"?

Why would you let your child play with a toy Kalachnikov or AK47 but not a toy landmine or IED?

scottishmummy · 25/08/2014 22:57

Yore desperate to have a contrived would you let child have a rocket launcher,air to surface missile,eh?eh?
Trying too hard but no one biting

Hakluyt · 25/08/2014 23:00

Can't see the difference, frankly,

Heyho111 · 26/08/2014 00:14

One friend didn't let hers have guns. The son had a wand, medieval sword, bow and rubber tipped arrow and a water pistol. It made me laugh.
You can't stop them. What's the difference in having a Lego / stick/ toast one than an actual toy one. They all kill the baddy in the end.

StillWishihadabs · 26/08/2014 08:35

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.

StillWishihadabs · 26/08/2014 08:39

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.

JustAShopGirl · 26/08/2014 09:00

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.

Hulababy · 26/08/2014 09:07

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

Sallystyle · 26/08/2014 09:10

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 · 26/08/2014 09:11

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.

SilentCharisma · 26/08/2014 10:02

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...

Sallystyle · 26/08/2014 11:20

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.

Bambambini · 26/08/2014 11:42

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.

aciddrops · 26/08/2014 13:32

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 · 26/08/2014 13:49

"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?

JassyRadlett · 26/08/2014 15:53

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. Smile

ouryve · 26/08/2014 15:57

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

ouryve · 26/08/2014 15:58

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.

Bambambini · 26/08/2014 16:06

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

Original poster
yesiamwhoyouthinkiam · 26/08/2014 18:10

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?

OP posts:
scottishmummy · 26/08/2014 19:55

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

Original poster
yesiamwhoyouthinkiam · 26/08/2014 22:49

It is Bollox though?

OP posts:
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