Did your teen enjoy playing with toy guns when they were children?

[tigermoth]

Just curious to find out if anyone thinks their's teen's behaviour or outlook has been affected by playing with toy guns as a child?

My boys both played with toy guns, especially ds2. He was also very much into toy soldiers, and all things to do with the armed forces.

He's now 16 and has not followed through with that interest - hasn't wanted to join the army cadets or LARP groups for instance, and has no huge interest in guns or military history. He does play military games on the computer but is more into Minecraft.

He's been reasonably well behaved at school/sixth form - makes friends well, isn't in gangs, doesn't get into fights etc. I realise this is a lot of this is down to luck, but I can't see that playing with toy guns has had any affect on him tbh.

So, just wanted to see what other parents of teens think about this?

My boys played a bit with toy guns and other toy weapons, but it was part of a sort of adventure in the woods, building dens and hideouts and running around pretending to be bandits. The guns were a prop for their adventure fantasy, not a particular interest of theirs. They were much more aggressive and unpleasant over a chess game than when running around with their friends and toy guns.

They have never been into online gaming or violent entertainment of any sort, are both vegetarian and pretty pacifist, have never been in a fight, vote labour/ democrat (dual citizenship), believe in gun control, don't like the army, and are feminists.

There is a very good book called ' we don't play with guns here' about the importance of making and playing with weapons as part of normal development and that it shouldn't be banned in schools. I recommend it.

Interesting - I don't have a teen yet, sorry, but I don't allow guns for my small boys. I am not sure why, since I allow swords, bows and arrows etc. Why do guns seem less acceptable than other toy weapons?

Oh space guns are ok, just not regular ones

Don't all children play with weapons at some point?

Whether it's a sword, a light sabre or a gun.

I remember all mine doing so (I've been 'shot at' by bananas too, and put 'en guarde' by a baguette wielder).

I couldn't begin to even attempt to work out if one particular (and so widespread as to be normal) form of play made any difference. I can say that the DSes were both pretty co-operative about age ratings on games, and have foregone getting 18s ahead of time. Minecraft persists.

All including not-yet-teen DD did taekwondo for a while. But that, like Cadets (which none of mine have expressed and interest in) is about discipline and control, not unbridled aggression.