Monday, March 15, 2010

Ahem...building guns....

I hate guns.
Hate them hate them hate them!!!!
My boys are boys.
They want to play with guns.
They want to play "cowboys" with guns.
They have an uncle with his air-soft gun (I don't really know if that's what its called)
This uncle will let my 5 year old shoot the air-soft gun up in the air as long as he doesn't tell his Mom (Me).
Well young uncle he told.........
And what has this done to my 5 year old? Its made him think guns are just that much cooler :(
I'm not happy about it.
At all.
I hate guns!
I don't like what they represent, which to me is killing.
Some people see protection, some see hunting animals.
I see killing.
And it makes me sick.

Now having said that, I must admit that today I helped my boys make cardboard guns.
Ahem.
Bear was practically bawling because he wanted to play "cowboy" but he doesn't have a gun like his cousins. He wanted to look in my closet for something he could use to make a gun with creatively (I told him to use his imagination and pretend something was a gun and be creative).

Crap!
I hate guns!!!!

But do I really want to make a huge issue of this with my kids and absolutely forbid them to play "cowboys" with guns. Wouldn't that just make guns that much more intriguing for them. I decided it probably would and because I will never buy them a real toy cowboy or sheriff gun I decided a cardboard pretend gun would be alright. We got creative and cut them out with a few set backs here and there. I had a hard time figuring out just the right shape. Then after I cut them out I let the boys color them. It didn't take long for them to start with the sound effects, but it only lasted a few minutes before they lost interest.
Lol!
I am willing to bet that had I refused to even let them pretend to play "cowboys" with guns they would have carried on about it all day long.



5 comments:

Erin said...

Yikes. That is a hard situation. I hate guns, too, but I think for some reason boys are just drawn to them. Maybe you could go visit a police station and have someone talk to them about how dangerous they can be and how people can get hurt using them?

Jules AF said...

I wouldn't even know what to do.

Frugal Vicki said...

I am with you and I HATE guns. I don't even know where my son got the idea of shooting a gun because we don't watch any cartoons even that would include them. I don't know what to do about this. It is kind of like anything forbidden, it may just make it more desirable for them.

Liz Mays said...

I hate guns too, but like you...I know they're gonna play with them so I would have done the very same thing.

Shannon K. said...

Well I say good for you for letting them do it. I think if you made it so taboo the interest level would just increase tenfold.