Hi IM's. Just looking for some insight, I have three sons under 4. Although I have never bought toy guns for them my husband and mother Inlaw buy them. My 4 year old has a fascination with them and I am not liking it. The younger two are now carrying on to play with them. I have told my husband I don't like toy guns especially when they're aiming them at each other. But he thinks I am over reacting. On a side note I believe he is desensitised to guns from growing up in a civil war in Lebanon. So it's Sunday morning and they r all running around with these nerf guns with the bullets all over the house. Is this normal?
5 Replies
My partner and I are as Aussie as they come, he grew up in a semi rural area, I'm from the city. Our 19 year old grew up with toy guns as did his dad and as did I (I only ever had a cap gun by holy crap I loved it). Cap guns, fake machine guns, nerf guns, water pistols, super soakers the whole caboodle, he even did shooting as a sport at his high school for a term. As adults at Christmas time we still snot each other with water bombs and chase each other all over the farm with super soakers. He isn't violent, not a serial killer, not rushing off to join the army so he can blow shit up, not hateful. He has developed an interest in guns so it's good we never demonised them to him, we know people with them and he likes to shoot targets and clays when he can.
I'm pretty much exactly like the above- Aussie, grew up similar, but i was rural. My bro and my family are all stable. As long as you teach them its okay to play with toy guns and real guns are dangerous and are not toys it should be fine, plus a toy gun would be a decent facsimile to teach them about gun safety without the potential of actual death. Granted, I didn't grow up where anything but a toy gun was available to me, if you have a real gun in your home (even properly secured) I would probably say the opposite as you don't want them finding the real thing and thinking its a toy.
Plus its completely normal to run around the house with foam darts everywhere, my husband and I have our own collection of Nerf guns and have had complete wars without featuring the kids because... why not?
There are people who dont like them people who dont. I dont care. They are fun and active and very different from real guns.
I also learnt shooting and enjoy that as a hobby at a target range i dont believe playing toy guns as a child leads to anything detrimental. I certainly knew to respect real weapons and didnt ever assume i could shoot at someone or play around because i had played cap guns as a child.
I respect some parents dont like it and probably wouldnt buy a toygun as a birthday present thats all.
We have nerf guns, and water pistols. Kids love them and we love them. We had access to nerf and water pistols as children. None of our family have developed an interest in owning real guns at all. Kids understand the difference between real and pretend.
I probably would have a problem with toy guns that look real. I find them quite disturbing. But a bright orange nerf gun or bright green water pistol, no problems.
It's like assuming if yiu learn karate you are going to beat people up.
I admit I think it is over the top and grew up around guns. You are not alone in your position but it is "normal" behaviour that I spend some days telling children to put their imaginary guns away at work. Which makes me sad as I had toy guns and imaginary ones when their age