To think kids playing with toy guns is a bit strange?

[notanotherone28]

It makes me uncomfortable when I see a kid playing with a toy gun. Someone I am friends with on FB has just posted a pic of her 5 yo son posing with one and it just didn't sit right with me.

Am I being weird?

Yes, a bit. Kids will also turn sticks and other inanimate objects into guns and swords and other implements

Realistic toy guns unnerve me, less so nerf guns - in fact I quite want to play with one of those myself.

I had cap guns, spud guns, water guns and a rifle that shot sticky darts (badly) when I was small. Catapaults, and bows & arrows too.

They were great fun. I'm reasonably well adjusted these days.

There have always been questions about kids playing with toy guns but it is part and parcel of growing up/role play. As PP has said kids will make guns out of anything a child I knew once used the crust of his sandwich as a pretend gun.

My DC have never played with or owned a toy gun aside from a water pistol during the summer. They have never used a stick or bottle and pretended it was a gun either, don’t think it would occur to them to do that. I don’t like them either, never have.

Just guns, or weapons in general? Because I find it a bit odd that some parents are very against toy guns but then will happily buy little Henry or Jemima a wooden sword from the gift shop at an English Heritage castle. I can understand why some parents aren't into toy weapons in general but I think it's a bit illogical when they single out guns alone as being a problematic toy.

Equally, while I can understand the whole principle behind not wanting children to play with toy weapons, it it was absolutely standard when I was a child and I don't my generation is more violently inclined than the generations that have followed. So I do think it's more about symbolic gesture than actually protecting children from harm.

I'm not a fan of kids with any kind of toy weapon. Guns especially make me feel uneasy but even a toy sword is a bit grim.

I don't see any issue whatsoever. They are just having fun without harm.

What I do find strange is a kid playing video games from the youngest age. Fine to kill time in hospital or an airport, but on a normal day, I don't get it.

I have no words, bloody snowflakes

We made some out of sticklebricks this morning. My Ds (2) loves running around going "pew pew pew".

He'll be joining our local shooting club when he's older too so genuinely not that arsed by them 🤷

I don't see any issue

I never had a problem with my three playing with guns & swords. They've grown up to be kind, gentle well-adjusted young men who wouldn't hurt a fly despite a childhood filled with the things.

It makes me uncomfortable too.
In a soft play last year (DD was 2) an older boy started following her around the baby/toddler section with a realistic toy gun and kept trying to shoot her and put it to her head and it made me seriously uncomfortable so I had to remove her til he left. Bizarre

How so?? Kids have played cowboys and Indians for years and haven't turned into serial killers?

Is it the weapon bit which bothers you? If so then light sabres and Harry Potter style Wands would also need to be banned 🤦‍♀️

I don't like replica style toy guns and knives - ones that look pretty realistic.

However I have no issue with colourful water guns and nerf guns.

And yes, many children really do try and make a weapon, eso guns, out of anything. We don't allow shooting type games as school and don't let the children make and build guns. But it doesn't stop them trying to - even the ones who have parents who are very anti

Nerf guns and plastic tat guns were ds's favourite toy.
He starts his army training in 2 weeks...