Kids Playing With Toy Guns

[Nikkijah]

Some friends of my little boy keep on buying him toy guns and daggers

I'm not sure how I should feel about this as some friends in the UK have never bought a toy gun or similar for their son and he is quite happy playing with lots of other toys.

After reading about the high fatality rate from firearms in this country - whether accurate or not, I know that there is still quite a high rate of fatalities - should I be concerned about my boy playing 'soldiers' or have I bought too much of my countries paranoia with me??

Thanks

Nikkijah

[Donz]

Its ok, I used to play with bb guns (shoot plastic balls), plastic knifes, swords, I even made a ninja star and used to sharpen metal sticks like they were spears.

When he gets older he wont think about using real weapons on people, he will be smarter then that

[Nikkijah]

That's the same for me Donz, I used to have SOME guns but my mum tells me I never really played with them

I think I'm being a bit paranoid because I'm the daddy now...

I don't expect him to play with guns and grow up to be a gun maniac but the gun crime in this country does worry me and I wonder what effect it might have on future generations including my sons.

[britmaveric]

Well part of play - always played army when I was a wee tike. Built forts, bows/arrows. Good fun. However one has to teach difference between play/reality.

[PeaceBlondie]

You don't teach your son to pretend he's raping, so why let him pretend he's killing? Would you let him pretend he's disgracing the monarchy, or Buddhism? Of course not. Children learn how to behave. I hope you are teaching him how to be a responsible adult.

That's my personal opinion. Obviously, I'm extreme, because I'm an absolute pacifist. I taught all my children not to harm other human beings. They learned how to behave so that nobody tries to kill them. My eldest child has been teaching teenagers in America for 18 years now, and no student ever tried to harm her.

Sometimes, our children teach us how to be better adults. Good luck.

[Ulysses G.]

When we were children in the 60s, my friends and I used to practice making molotav cocktails for when the hippy revolution came, but it never did. Now us old farts would use them on the hippies.

Burn baby, burn!

[Farma]

If he was in a village he could be playing with the other kids and helping them build their flintlock type rat guns.

Now thats scary

[GuestHouse]

No toy guns for our kids.

But that didn't stop me having to tell my son he's not allowed to shoot his sister with a toy Tea Pot.

[phazey]

I try to keep my son away from guns and knives, but alas it's unavoidable. Take for instance, we're at the locak Mall the other day, he's into these "Bay Blade" things - next thing he's handed a "free gift" a plastic AK-47.

He now has several of these toy guns... ;(

Can't we all just get along ??

[Nikkijah]

I'm surprised by some of the responses, I thought I was going to get shot down(pardon the pun) for being a silly Englishman!

I'm impressed with pacifists as I think it takes a lot to be one, not sure I could ever fully practice what I preached though

Our son has this other toy, it's like a magic wand with a dome on the top, when you switch it on something inside spins around and makes some nice patterns, it also plays some quite hypnotic tunes, our son loves it!! I told my partner that these are the toys he should be sticking with, toys that make him wonder, not just make him run around being a little monster!

PeaceBlondie, that's quite extreme but I do agree with the sentiment, 'They learned how to behave so that nobody tries to kill them' sounds like a perfect ideal, especially out here where the wrong look or a misunderstanding can get you in trouble, I'll think about that one...

Edited October 20, 2006 by Nikkijah

[britmaveric]

Well I think most of us have turned out to be reasonablely responsible adults even though we played soldier and such. Wait til your lil one gets playing the video games.

[Nikkijah]

Thats just it britmaveric, where do I stop being silly about what he can and can't do? It makes a strong argument for not worrying so much and hope that all the violence doesn't make much of an impact on him right?...

[leftcross]

you are worrying far too much.

let the lad have his toy guns and knives and grenades. when he grows up he might want to be a soldier, what's wrong with that?

if he doesnt like to play with them he wont.

if you ban them and make a big thing of it it will only add to the allure and it could cause more trouble than just letting him play in the first place.

[Nikkijah]

you are worrying far too much.

let the lad have his toy guns and knives and grenades. when he grows up he might want to be a soldier, what's wrong with that?

if he doesnt like to play with them he wont.

if you ban them and make a big thing of it it will only add to the allure and it could cause more trouble than just letting him play in the first place.

It's a fair argument leftcross, although I don't really want to ban this stuff, I'd rather just attract his attention with something else although that is easier said than done because it's other people who buy these things for him when I'm not there

His Thai friends all have guns so it's quite hard for me to stop completely, I don't want to go around asking people not to buy guns for him because it's quite normal here!

I'll just have to play along I suppose, my partner told me to stop being silly

[leftcross]

he's a little lad. he will like guns, cars, scrapping, getting dirty etc etc.

you don't want him growing up to be a big fairy do you?

[Thaiboxer]

It's hard to say either way as kids these days are MUCH different than when we were kids. Today's kids have much easier access to information via the web (and not all of that info is good of course) but I still think most of it comes down to how they are raised; if they are raised responsibly, that will carry on into adulthood and they'll turn out just fine. Most of us on this forum probably played with toy weapons when we were kids and we turned out ok.

[Beavis and Butthead]

I was never allowed to play with toy guns. My kid was not allowed to either

[bino]

A tough issue to be sure....

My mom didn't like me playing with guns, and always tried to discourage me, but like leftcross says, this only made me want to do it even more! Boys will be boys.

I think a lot depends on the type of toy gun involved. Water pistols can be hilarious fun, as all Thai people know from Songkran. The sticky rubber dart guns can be fun too. Cap guns that make noise were also a favorite of mine. I went on to pellet guns and 22's when I was a teenager.

Even if you banned him from playing with guns, will probably never completely be able to prevent it. I think you may wish to consider a little bit of "gun safety" training... especially with any gun that shoots any kind of projectile. Make sure your son knows never to point it or shoot anyone in the face.

One of my GF's 6 yr old nephews once pointed a realistic looking plastic toy 45 that shot hard plastic pellets directly in my face. I grabbed his arm and twisted it until he dropped the gun, then I stomped it to pieces. The boy started crying, and the GF and sister got pissed off at me.

I got angry in return, told them that he was lucky that I didn't break his little arm, and if he grows up thinking that it is OK to point a gun at someone, especially in the face, he should be prepared for the consequences and that he probably won't live past 21.

I think that if you explain the dangers involved, guns can be an excellent way to teach a child about responsibility and safety while having fun at the same time.

[meadish_sweetball]

Some friends of my little boy keep on buying him toy guns and daggers

I'm not sure how I should feel about this as some friends in the UK have never bought a toy gun or similar for their son and he is quite happy playing with lots of other toys.

After reading about the high fatality rate from firearms in this country - whether accurate or not, I know that there is still quite a high rate of fatalities - should I be concerned about my boy playing 'soldiers' or have I bought too much of my countries paranoia with me??

Thanks

Nikkijah

Mum tried to enforce the "no war toys" policy in our family. My older brother did submit to her authority, but I wouldn't have it (stubborn little bastard I was). I wanted guns, swords, spaceships and James Bond stuff, and in the end my mother realised it wouldn't work to keep up her hardline, so in order to still preserve her own authority, she secretly had a male colleague of hers buy me the first "violent" toy I ever owned, a little replica of James Bond's white Lotus Elan which could fire plastic clips. I was given my first lesson in how to handle guns - never ever point it at anybody. And they were very strict with this rule - I could see they were serious, so I listened as well.

And in the end, I grew up to be a near-pacifist who hates guns and violent people.

It's not about what toys you let your kids play with - play is play, kids understand that quite quickly - it's your own behaviour that will have the main impact on him - and the most important thing is the type of person he is anyway. Does he have violent tendencies, or bully other kids? If not, why not trust him enough to have his toys?

Make sure you can motivate your choices, and live as you preach... and spend as much time with him as possible.

[Nikkijah]

HAHAHAHAHA Good points by most!

I actually remember now, me and my violent older sh1t of a brother sitting down and watching the A-Team, my mum heard the music and came shuffling in to tell us to turn off the TV, we just laughed at her, she said she didn't want us to watch violent TV but as we all know, not one single pesron ever died in the A-Team did they... did they??

I just spoke with my mum about this and she told me that when me and my sh1t of a brother were teenagers she found a big knife hidden in my brothers room which he used to walk around the streets with ! My mum never really stopped us from owning toy guns and toy knives but she didn't encourage it either, guess we were just boys, I told her that the only knife I ever owned was the one for cutting up firewood to burn down a few garden fences

BUT, as we all know, todays kids are an even bigger bunch of animals than we were in our time...

meadish_sweetball, you hit the nail on the head, as so many others have too, me and his mum make the right decisions, show him the way to do things, don't restrict him from too many things and hopefully he'll grow up to be half way between me as a little monster and her as a little princess but NOT a 'fairy' LEFTCROSS...

[Nikkijah]

So, I've had some helpful and reassuring responses so my mind is now at ease...

I've just been browsing the board for other threads and I came across the 'Do Luk Kreung Children Have Good Prospects?' thread

Too many things to think about??

[IMA_FARANG]

Some friends of my little boy keep on buying him toy guns and daggers

I'm not sure how I should feel about this as some friends in the UK have never bought a toy gun or similar for their son and he is quite happy playing with lots of other toys.

After reading about the high fatality rate from firearms in this country - whether accurate or not, I know that there is still quite a high rate of fatalities - should I be concerned about my boy playing 'soldiers' or have I bought too much of my countries paranoia with me??

Thanks

Nikkijah

Probably it is just a normal thing for a child to play with toy weapons. Believe it or not, most children develop a keen sense of the difference between play and reality quite early in their development. It is really good for their development to confirm what they know as reality as being different from what they do as play. So I would say for a normal boy, playing with toy guns will have no effect on his future behavior.

[endure]

I used to play with guns, bow & arrows, catapults and I grew up to be a big fairy.

[Youbloodybeauty]

How about the kids lollie that come in syringes (minus the needle).

...also packets of lollies that looks like medication packets <deleted>.

Edited October 21, 2006 by Youbloodybeauty

[kmart]

Its ok, I used to play with bb guns (shoot plastic balls), plastic knifes, swords, I even made a ninja star and used to sharpen metal sticks like they were spears.

Metalwork classes at school were devoted to making throwing knives and Ninja stars. I made a beautiful shuriken once, until a dog ran off with it. Ok, it was stuck in its back at the time, but....

Kids like stuff like that. Its better than him playing with Barbie Dolls, no?

[Thaiboxer]

It's interesting how those who try so hard to restrict their kids' access to toy weapons have the most trouble controlling them. Yet those who allow their kids to play with those toys while enforcing safety rules have a far easier time. I look at back at some of the things boys did when I was a kid but it's nothing compared to how they are today.

[Sing_Sling]

Tough one . . .

We were alowed to play with swords and shields - can't remember having guns though.

Both my brother and I went to the military, Navy for a few years and came out officers.

Neither had an effect on us, in terms of being violent or pro-war/guns etc . . . we both abhor them actually.

Guns are not for playing with, I believe, and our kids don't have any . . . ok, they're both girls, but it does somehow disturb me seeing boys running around playing with their AKs and Ms.

By the same token I will definitely not let my kids play those violent video games - I find them to be far worse than toys as they do charge up the adrenalin and actually have people explode or have their heads ripped off.

[PeaceBlondie]

Metalwork classes at school were devoted to making throwing knives and Ninja stars. I made a beautiful shuriken once, until a dog ran off with it. Ok, it was stuck in its back at the time, but....

Kids like stuff like that. Its better than him playing with Barbie Dolls, no?

Hey, the emoticon at the end of the quote is for "unsure." I didn't play with dolls, and my folks let me play with various toys. It was after ww2, and they thought it was great that we had killed all those Nazis and Japanese for Jesus and FDR. As long as we're disagreeing (and my mod cap has been taken off), I'll suggest that it might be as much about social class as it is about fairies and bullies.

I was raised to be an upper middle class manager, not a manual laborer who goes down to the pub and gets drunk and fights with Paddy, Mick, and Cedric. Our local drunk was a banker and treasurer who drove home from the fancy pub very wobbly.

Those of you who think gay men are sissies who played with dolls should stay far away from a gay leather pub; you'll get well pummelled.

It's usually the lower class that actually gets to kill the Nazis and the Japanese, the VietCong and the Iraqis. It's the upper class that sit in board rooms and Oval Offices in three-piece suits, ordering the generals to order the soldiers into battle. It was the upper middle class who wore white collars and ties, that managed the extermination camps.

[BlackArtemis]

I grew up on toy guns, cartoons, and violent videogames. My kids will be allowed to do this on two conditions.

1. We have a sit down talk about reality and non-reality

2. My child shows comprhension after these talks (not just one)

Yeah I have been in fist fights, but I wasn't bullying people, hel_l I was doing the opposite. Even this year I had some put their hands around my throat and was able to think through the situation to see that fighting wasn't the best route.

Most people would assume by my typical American upbringing I should be ready to kill everyone A La Grand Theft Auto.

Btw I actually grew up playing with barbies and my little pony right along side of He-man, GI Joe and Voltron. Peace is right, the toys they play with isn't the concrete anwser to their sexual preference in their 20's...

[TokyoT]

I am all for toy guns. I have bought quite a few for my nephews and would not hesitate to buy them for my daughter if she expressed any interest in them. I do not see it as the path to violence and hate. Kids can be taken down that path with or without guns or weapons of any kind. Violent children are a reflection of how they are raised and not the toys they play with.

I would not hesitate to not only allow my daughter to play with toy guns but get her involved in the use of real guns if she expressed interest. Guns and the safe use of guns for sport shooting, hunting, or such do not directly relate to violence and violent behavior. If one is taught how to safely use guns I think you develop a higher level of respect for the damage they can inflict and are less likely to misuse them. As with many things in life IMHO it has quite a lot to due with respect; respect for the tools at one’s disposal and respect for those around you. Teach your child how to respect the world they live in and violence is only one of many issues they will be capable of dealing with on their own in due time.