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A Smoking Gun

March 15, 2013 By 3 Comments

The room is quiet except for the radio playing through our ROKU player on the TV. I’m sitting Indian style next to my son’s train table, playing Thomas the Tank Engine with him. I am taking Spencer on a run to the summer-house when I look up. There is a finger pointed at me and without warning the words POW POW POW are coming out his mouth. 

In shock, I looked around the quiet room to see if there happened to be someone else who saw this, thinking that maybe I could be dreaming it. The room was empty, just me and my son. Getting onto my knees I looked deep into his eyes telling him that we do not play that game. 

The Kid said “OK” and went along sending the troublesome trucks to the quarry while we are waiting for mom to finish dinner. The talking to about what just happened is not over. 

After the table was set, and our dinner prayer was said, we dive into our delicious pork roast. In the middle of stuffing my face, I hear POW POW POW again. This time Mommy saw it.  Immediately, we put a stop to it telling the Kid that this was not an acceptable game to play. Knowing full well where he had picked up the “game” we spoke with our daycare about what he had picked up. We told them that we know that they may not be able to stop the kids from playing it, but the Kid does not. 

KidWithGUn

We told our family and friends this story. Most of which are inclined to give advice and they advised us that we should not have said anything since kids will be kids. There is no stopping a child from playing guns. Yes, that is true, but our son is two and half years old, he has no reason to play guns. To our exhaustion, the argument failed to meet their standards of parenting. 

I fully realize that there will be sometime when our son is playing Cops and Robbers and will be shooting a play gun, but not when he is two and half. We do not want to promote violence to him at this early pivotal age of development.   Right now he has a hard time understanding why he can’t play it.  If we stop it right then and there it won’t continue.  When he is 5 we can reason with him and tell him why he can’t or shouldn’t be playing “guns.”  Until then I will not allow my son to play “guns.”

Am I off my rocker thinking that my 2 and half-year old shouldn’t be playing guns?
At what age is it acceptable to play games that involve guns?

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  • http://www.theperpetualshave.wordpress.com Matthew

    Not at all. I do not understand why the killing of other human beings (especially family members) is an acceptable childhood game for boys. Baffles me.

    At our house, we have two long-standing rules. 1) No realistic looking gun toys. Period. Occasionally, a Sci-Fi type laser gun might make it into the house (via a gift) and be allowed to stay, but if it does then rule #2 applies. Rule 2) No pointing the laser at friends, family members or strangers. The gun may only be pointed at imaginary space monsters, and they can fight invisible evil robots as much as they want. If the laser gets pointed at a friend or family member, it goes away.

    We have always been very clear as to why we do not play these types of games, and why “Pow pow” is not appropriate. The no toy gun rule was established not because we view toy guns as “bad”, but because guns are very specific and powerful tools made for a very specific and sad purpose and that purpose is not to be taken lightly.

    We have an uncle in the family whom our kids love. He is a lifelong police officer who has had to pull trigger on a perpetrator. We have often told our kids that the uncle would tell them that pointing a gun at another human being and pulling the trigger is a huge decision with huge ramifications and not fun in any way, nor is it a game.

    And as a family of casual gamers, any video games with “pow pow” as a main way of solving the games problem are also not allowed.

    It’s a hard world we live in.

    • James Hudyma

      Your response says most of what I was thinking, Matthew.

  • http://legaldad.blogspot.com/ CJ Cat

    Some good thoughts. I like to read and understand the various views on this issue. I am not sure when toy guns entered the picture in our house, but it just sort of happened. I am not a huge gun advocate and am also not against guns. I did two posts on violence in the household (http://legaldad.blogspot.com/) this week and am sort of ho hum about it. My brothers and I turned out pretty well rounded, so I guess I just take that view. I could just as easily accept both of your views, they are good points and I agree with them. No pointing and no real looking guns are my two rules too.

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