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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Kids playing world war

19 replies

shoefactree · 03/03/2022 13:04

what would your reaction be? DC had been playing out yesterday with the children from our flats and a couple of others they know from school. Came home and told us they'd been playing world war 3 tanks vs artillery Kids are aged between 7-12. Something all kids do, especially at the moment with what they're hearing on the news or something I need to put a stop to?

YABU let them play
YANBU it's distasteful, tell them to stop and play something else.

OP posts:

CommonPrimrose · 03/03/2022 13:06

Children process the world around them through play.
As long as they are all cooperating in the play and not using it to pick on one another I'd be okay with it.
I'd also be keeping my young kids away from news coverage at the moment. They don't need to hear it day in day out.

Hospedia · 03/03/2022 13:07

Unless it's getting excessively gory or turning into actual fighting then I'd let them play. Kids will always try and make sense of the world around them via play, it's their way of sorting through it all.

Thegirlwiththeeagereyes · 03/03/2022 13:12

We've had children playing World War at school this week and although we're keeping an eye, this is how children make sense of things of what's going on around them. Limit their access to coverage (or cut it out completely), respond to any questioning in a sensible way and be there for them if they're feeling anxious, but I wouldn't stop them processing their feelings in this way.

GreenWhiteViolet · 03/03/2022 13:14

It's a natural form of play.

Unless it turns into actual fighting and someone could get hurt, no need to do anything about it.

NutellaEllaElla · 03/03/2022 13:15

Atishoo atishoo, we all fall down.

Kids have always played around with horrifying themes. Seen any fairy tales?

girlmom21 · 03/03/2022 13:15

Let them play.

You wouldn't be worried if they were playing cops and robbers.

incognitoforthisone · 03/03/2022 13:22

Kids have always played war games. It's why toys like Action Man exist. When I was a child, it was pretty standard for kids to be running around the playground making machine-gun noises. I completely understand why it seems distasteful, but I think you need to let them get on with it.

I might have a little conversation with them that went along the lines of 'It's OK to play pretending games about war, so long as you know that war in reality is a very bad thing that kills a lot of innocent people, and that usually the soldiers don't have any choice about being there.' But I wouldn't tell them not to play their game at all (unless they're getting upset by it of course).

Georgeskitchen · 03/03/2022 13:23

YABU kids have always played war games

Rinoachicken · 03/03/2022 13:28

@Thegirlwiththeeagereyes

^^This

Original poster

shoefactree · 03/03/2022 13:30

I don't think anyone is getting upset. No idea what the other parents think though. As far as I can make out, the artillery (with a ball) were trying to hit the tanks ( kids other side of sand pit ) and when someone got hit the medics ran out. No physical fighting with one another.

OP posts:

CommonPrimrose · 03/03/2022 13:47

I wouldn't worry about what other parents think. It's children playing.

ChocolateMassacre · 03/03/2022 13:57

Let children play what they like (so long as not violent or distressing others). Personally, I find it interesting to see how children perceive things that are happening around them and I don't think adults should intervene unless necessary.

During the height of Covid, all the children seemed to be playing Covid games, including 'Covid tag'. My DS became fascinated with destroying germs and his favourite bathtime game was blasting 'germs' with a water pistol and scrubbing them away. There was also a lot of pretend coughing from the kids we know - 'you've got the germs, now!" - which I and other parents did put a stop to.

Lindy2 · 03/03/2022 14:01

For the children play and imagination games are an outlet for processing what's going on around them.

If a war game helps them cope then fine.

There's always been goodies and baddies games such as cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, pirates.

Hopefully in their games the good side prevails.

deadlanguage · 03/03/2022 14:14

War games are common among kids. When I was a kid (start of the Iraq war) we played WW2.

JellybabyGina87 · 03/03/2022 14:33

As long as it's just acting out play and not actual play I think it's fine. Where I used to live, the boys that played this would always end up beating the shit out of each other and whacking each other with sticks.

BooksAndHooks · 03/03/2022 14:36

I remember playing gulf war in primary school when it was on the news. It is a way kids process it.

nearlyspringyay · 03/03/2022 14:45

Kids have always played war games haven't they? They and us as adults are more attuned to it at the moment.

Woofwoofbarkbark · 03/03/2022 14:47

My kids played being homeless and poor quite a lot after we were homeless and poor!! It's normal for kids to figure out the world through play.

MorningStarling · 03/03/2022 14:48

Kids have always played war games. To children, war is glamourous and exciting. In time they grow out of it, either that or war arrives and they quickly learn the hard way.

It'd be more of a concern if a teenage child was seriously considering a career in the armed forces though, that's when parents should worry and try to put a stop to it.

But yeah, children playing killing Germans or Iraqis or Russians or whoever the enemy is at a given point in time isn't a big deal.

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