Comments on: Bang, bang. You’re a boy.

By: Clisby

Clisby — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:57:06 +0000

Debra,

I had 4 brothers, and I don’t recall any of them being interested in self-defense. Why would that be a worry? Realistically, most of us probably will never need self-defense skills. Personally, I’d think knowing how to shoot a gun would be more practical.

By: Debra

Debra — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:59:33 +0000

My boyfriend loved guns as a child & even shot his b.b. gun at the television when he thought Matt Dillon was drawing his gun! My boyfriend later earned a sharpshooting metal in the Air Force. He enjoys firing at paper targets. I likes the zen aspect of aim. His son has never been interested in guns, playing war, or playing violent video games. He was all about Sonic Hedgehog, tampolines and skateboards. His father never brought up the topics of guns because his kid never expressed an interest. His son also has no interest or knowledge in self-defense (open hand), and my boyfriend is concerned about this.

By: Liz

Liz — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:08:26 +0000

this reminds me of the Barbie issue with a lot of girls. I let daughter have Barbies (and even BRATZ when she begged for them..although I still thing Bratz look like pimp-my-Barbie) and she pretty much moved past them. Had I forbidden them, all she would think of was the Barbies that she was denied. I knew mothers who wouldn’t let their daughters have Barbie….
not being particularly liberal, play guns did not freak me out with my son. the real thing: yes…but that is not political..it is because I am a scaredy cat….
I also hated working in kitchens because the equipment scared me…LOL…

By: Clisby

Clisby — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:25:41 +0000

I forgot – my daughter and son both liked bows and arrows. My son was 5 when I thrilled him by making a bow out of a bendy branch and some string, and trimming a stick for an arrow (my sister and brothers and I all did this when we were growing up.)

By: Randall Brown

Randall Brown — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:00:15 +0000

I had all manner of guns (toy), knives (real) and other implements of destruction as a kid, and I turned out all right. No, really.

By: Leslie

Leslie — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:37:58 +0000

I had a toy rifle as a child but it was mostly a prop for dramatic play. My sister and I also like to swordfight with styrofoam “swords” we made ourselves–part of the fun was when the swords would break in two and have to be reinforced with masking tape! I had a ban on toy guns until my boys were almost teenagers, when they wore me down into allowing Nerf guns and supersoakers, but we don’t have realistic toy guns. We always had swords, though, as swords are an element of fantasy play not likely to be encountered in real life.

By: TheSnarkyOne

TheSnarkyOne — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:19:30 +0000

I am a gun enthusiast because I believe in guns as tools of necessity at this point. If I could magically wave a wand I would remove %100 of the guns in the world. I can’t. Therefore I am a gun enthusiast. I knew my son was going to eventually get a gun into his hand, whether it be at 13 or at 18 I wanted him to be trained in the art of the weapon and in the art of staying alive after contact with said weapon.
So, when he was younger he was allowed to only have 2-3 toy guns and he had to put them up safe at night. While he was playing with them he was taught to never point it at something that he did not want to kill. Humans, cats, birds; it did not matter. He could play squirt guns with other kids after he told me the difference between the unrealistic squirt guns and a real gun or even a real looking play gun.
Swords are a different story. We kill each other all of the time.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:12:24 +0000

My girls used to make up family stories about the toy cars, my son would eat bread into the shape of a gun and make vroom vroom noises with the dollhouse dolls. I started like you, with carefully gender neutral items, but they fell more or less into typical gender stereotypes. My girls have shown slight interest in my son’s big nerf guns, but just barely.