toy guns

[mygifts1306]

Dear all

I would like to hear what your thoughts on this are,

 

a) do your kids have toy guns

my answer- my kids dont play with toy guns, ds1 8 and ds2 4, it not something that they have done, the reason why i have decided to put this on the post is dh took boys out to a friends and they came home with toy guns that the kids they were visiting let them have a wee shot of, I did not like it when i heard them say"you are dead", am i over the top, had a chat with dh about this, and i can see where he is coming from, he does not want them to feel left out, all thier friends have got them, but i feel this is just peer pressure that as parents instead of having our own values and saying"do you know what my kids are not playing with that" we just say, well so and so kids do it, i am more worried as DS1(AS) has been really unkind to his brother, and when he had the "gun" it was like he was a different persojn, i slept on this and thought well i will let them play with them for a while, i then imposed further instruction "they were not to point at one another", am i just over the top?. with the state of the world i think they need to be discourages.my kids have had light sabre as seen in starwars, i just dont want my kids playing with things that in real life are used to destroy and shatter people's life. I was not brought up in war, but sometimes i wonder "how must it be like to be a child brought up in iraq during the war" i know i am opening a can of worms so i will stop my rant.

b. what imaginative play/value can possibly be obtained from playing with guns

kind regards

Edited March 20, 2011 by mygifts1306

[JsMum]

When J was an infant I had the same views no guns, but J found another way of getting a gun look alike, he would make them out of his LEGO or find a twig that was similair shape and shout the same, ha, ha your dead, that kind of thing, I researched the interest of guns and boys and basically it does go back to our cave days were we had to protect our territory and family in the form other weapons,spears, knives, you look at photos of a cave man immitation, they carry a baseball look a weapon.

 

 

Did your DH or even you as a girl have any guns as a child, Play cow boys and indians, I use to be pretty brutal to my brothers and it didnt involve any type of weapon, I had my bare hands to do that with, lol.

 

I think even if by magic there was NO pretent guns to play with, then kids would just immitate it with thier hands, and make the noises themselves.

 

I persoanlly think its instinctive and comes from way back to our ansisters.

 

Obvously you need to monitor it and keep it play, J went to the Leeds Armary Museum he was in his absalout eliment, he loved it.

 

you have to teach them of the dangers of guns and there is some good points to guns too, if we were invaded tomorrow by lybia or somewhere then we would defo need our military to need them too, so they can protect us too, they may kill but it depends if its the enermy trying to harm us, there is also the sport eliment too, Guns are in sport too, and some use shooting as a hobby such as clay pigen shooting so some high class people may say that guns are not dangerous if used safelty, correctly.

 

I did some research and in the end because J was already using twigs and other things as guns I did get him some, the ones that come with a police kit, or a cow boys and indians or a milatary set, they didnt last long either, usually because bits came off in the call of duty, lolxx

 

 

JsMumx

[JsMum]

some links on the issue of Toy weaponsx

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7163741.stm

 

http://www.babble.com/kid/child-development/toys-guns-media-violence-effects-on-kids/

 

http://www.mckenzie-pediatrics.com/shop/images/ToyGuns.pdf

 

I searched engined Toy weapons and the effects on Boys.x

 

 

JsMumx

[JsMum]

This book may also be of an interestx

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dont-play-guns-here-Superhero/dp/0335210899

 

UK related. so should be more specific to our country.

 

JsMumx

[Kathryn]

No I've never gone out of my way to buy a toy gun for my son (now 13) or my daughter - let's not be sexist here! . Having said that, I once ordered a James Bond outfit online for him for a school fancy dress and it came with a replica gun. The sight of the thing made me uncomfortable and he was continually fiddling with it so I must confess it quietly went "missing" one day. It looked too much like the gun my dad had: considered a necessity for protection. I'll never forget travelling with him by car down a road where ambush was a real possibility and keeping my hand on the thing, ready I hoped, to shoot if necessary, even though I'd never fired a gun before. I was 15. Scary? You bet. I have a knot in my stomach just typing this.

 

Neither would I let my son wear anything resembling camouflage while I have the power to prevent it. Seen too much of the real thing, having grown up in a country at war, the idea that it's a fashion item makes me .

 

However, we have loads of light sabres and other alien weapons inspired by Star Wars Dr Who, x box games etc. And my son continually blasts away at various enemies on the X Box. Mostly harmless roleplay I think - the enjoyment is more in the tactics rather than killing - or is that wrong?

 

K x

[bid]

I didn't have any guns when my eldest was little, but he made them out of duplo, etc.

 

More relaxed with no.4...he has little toy soldiers, and Star Wars figures, amd plays long complicated games with plenty of sound effects!

 

I guess every family is different. We have a strong service background (DH was in the army, 4 immediate relatives on my side are either still serving or used to serve) so it's a bit more part of everyday life.

 

I think it's fine to have a personal prefernce for your own children and family.

 

Bid

[baddad]

I think boys naturally gravitate to guns and footballs etc and girls to dollies and make-up... there was a lot of research done a decade or so ago, and it pretty much concludedthe reasons weren't just peer pressure or sexual sterotyping, but extensions of natural differences between boys and girls... Of course, there are no hard and fast rules about this kind of stuff - one of the best footballers at Ben's primary was a girl, and some boys gravitate to 'two-ball' and skipping more than football and dribbling, but in general terms the research found the patterns pretty reliable. Having said that, I think there's a huge difference between boys using sticks as toy guns or even toy guns as toy guns, and using adult role player shoot-em-ups to the same ends. So my advice would be to relax a bit about the toy guns and stuff, but make 'em wait for the Grand Theft Auto and COD Black Ops until they're either in the right age bracket or pretty damn close!

Hope that's helpful, and gotta run as I've got a war to win: mahahahahahahahahahah... neyooooooooooooomm pow pow pow ack-ack-ack-ack-ack... [and for the sake of balance]: Eeeny meeny mackaraka dom-air-dominiaka eeny meeny makaraka om pom push!

 

L&P

 

BD

Edited March 21, 2011 by baddad

[Sally44]

I don't have a problem with toy guns.

For my son's birthday we booked a session at Megazone (one of those lazer gun fights inside a dark maze). We went in as a mixed bunch of children/adults [male and female]. After the first session (where we got hammered by a group of determined 8 year olds), we (the adults more than the kids) got very competitive and got our revenge.

I must say that everyone really enjoyed the games.

My husband was given a gun with the character "cat woman", which kept us amused for days [each gun has the character name of the person firing it and records your scores of how many hits you made and how many times you were hit].

[zeldasmum]

I have no problem with my son having toy guns and swords. He has the gun from star wars and quazar guns that we play with. I don't believe that playing with toy guns turns children into gang bangers with real guns.

 

Parents should do what feel right for them and their child.

[Suze]

My AS son never had toy guns or any toy type weapon when he was growing up, I consciously discouraged him from having anything like that.He was obsessed with tractors anyhow so never took much of an interest.Fstforward till present day and he is now a very active member of Air Cadets and regularly shoots with them as part of the training.Consequently his younger brother who is 8yrs has become totally into guns and makes them from lego and k-nex.He also has nerf guns, water pistols light sabers etc.He loves to charge around fighting imaginary enemies and his dream would be to join the army and protect civilians and beat the baddies (his words )...if I,m beingf honest I hate the idea of toy guns ..I,ve tried to dicourage them, but I,m fighting a losing battle I think just hoping he,ll grow out of it ...probably it will happen when he discovers girls lol

[baddad]

My AS son never had toy guns or any toy type weapon when he was growing up, I consciously discouraged him from having anything like that.He was obsessed with tractors anyhow so never took much of an interest.Fstforward till present day and he is now a very active member of Air Cadets and regularly shoots with them as part of the training.Consequently his younger brother who is 8yrs has become totally into guns and makes them from lego and k-nex.He also has nerf guns, water pistols light sabers etc.He loves to charge around fighting imaginary enemies and his dream would be to join the army and protect civilians and beat the baddies (his words )...if I,m beingf honest I hate the idea of toy guns ..I,ve tried to dicourage them, but I,m fighting a losing battle I think just hoping he,ll grow out of it ...probably it will happen when he discovers girls lol

hey - leave the baddads alone! Oh, the baddies... sorry, my bads

Edited March 21, 2011 by baddad

[mygifts1306]

very interesting mix of opinions, I think yes i do need to relax a bit about the subject, thank you very much for taking the time to reply to this post. To answer one of your question, i did not play with guns, but dh did.

 

kind regards

 

jax