Boys and Their Toys

When Gage was born, we were so careful about the toys that he played with....we wanted him to have imaginative play and concrete play. Blocks, cars, stuffed animals, books...we wanted him to experience and learn through playing (Gage is our first child - can you tell?)  We talked long and hard about whether he could have toy guns. AT first it was "No Guns" (because guns are not a toy) When Gage was a little older and began making his own guns out of sticks, etc., we said, "Only water guns or other guns that don't look like real guns or make sounds like real guns and only for pretending that he is a hunter. NO pretending to kill people." After a few more years, we moved to a rural area where boys have guns and go hunting at 6 or 7 years old. We bought him a BB gun and began to teach him gun safety. Then, Ethan was born. Toy gun rules began to get lax as Gage brought home cap guns and six shooters (any sheriff in the Wild West needs his cap gun and besides, we had been teaching him gun safety, so he should be able to handle this new responsibility right?)  and Ethan, at the tender age of 18 months, began to play guns with his brother. He didn't want the water guns....he wanted the six shooters. He wanted them NOW and was prepared to shatter of eardrums of anyone who didn't comply with his wishes IMMEDIATELY. So we gave in and let the toddler play with the six shooters....but "NO KILLING PEOPLE"  Evidently brothers don't qualify as people, because now the boys run through the house yelling and "shooting" at each other. When I get onto them, they explain that they are "shooting to wound not to kill" (guess I should been more specific for my extremely literal sons). This morning, I got Aiden (10 months) out of the tub and put him on the floor in his room with some stuffed animal veggietales to play while I cleaned his room. He held Larry the Cucumber for a minute, then set him down on the floor and walked over to his brother's toy box. He then carefully selected a realistic looking six shooter, walked back to Larry and pistol-whipped him. He's starting pretty young, so I guess it's a good thing we lost the BB gun when we moved. :)