People are now being admitted to hospital with eye injuries from Nerf Guns. Ouch but yeah. I’m sure many more have suffered quietly in backyards around the world. It happens.
If you had have told me this a few years ago however, I would have been horrified. “Oh my God. What kind of parent would allow their child to play with toy weapons?”
And now that kind of parent is me.
“No child of mine will have a toy gun”, I declared 20 years ago. Hahahahahhahaa. And also lol.
I was a brand new parent and I was blissfully deluded about 100 things. The idea I would be able to control what my child wanted to play with was just one of them. I’m the parent right? My values. My rules (see: leggings are not pants).
My first child had no guns. I wouldn’t allow it. This wasn’t a huge problem because he was a kid who was obsessed with cars and cooking. While other four-year-old boys carried around guns, he carried around a copy of Nigella Lawson’s How To Be A Domestic Goddess, weighed down with post-it notes marking all the cakes he wanted to make and then eat.
I felt a bit smug about this. No weapons in MY HOUSE. War and violence are firmly discouraged - no, banned. I had a friend with a son the same age who tried a similar approach before she waved the white flag. “I don’t let him have guns and so he just chews his toast into a gun shape and shoots his sister,” she sighed. I made sympathetic noises while privately thinking she was a pussy and feeling morally superior. My child isn’t drawn to mindless violence. My child is drawn to baking.
Top Comments
We had no guns as toys, only as costume props, eg at a Wild West party. We had water pistols at a bubbles party. For daughter's upcoming 1600-1700s party we have blunderbussessesses.
So funny. Had me laughing cause I can relate. I have two boys who love their weapons and now they have a younger sister who thinks she's cool hand luke too.
They aren't allowed to take their weapons anywhere either......but we've had some good arguments over it too.