Should children be allowed to play with toy guns?
I've seen people on TV commenting that giving children toy guns is a terrible thing. In fact, this condemnation moves towards general aggression play.
What I would like to ask is whether you agree that childern playing with toy guns is wrong, or not? And if so, why?
Before I had children I could totally understand the point. I even at one point thought that I would not allow my children toy guns.
However, now that I'm a parent I no longer see the argument for disallowing or discouraging such behaviour to be at all relevant.
children are children - they thrive on using their imagination. Any form of supposedly "aggressive play" is actually a form of essential social interraction, learning to develop a sense of social standing. Whereas blatant aggression, such as hitting, is something I'm not at all encouraging, actual play with guns and pretending to shoot one another is hardly a dangerous act to a child's psychology.
In fact, I'd argue the reverse - that a parent that stifles their child's social development in such a manner is likely to cause future psychological problems - perhaps especially through parental domination and acute feelings of insecurity that affects social interractions.
What do others here think? I'm happy to open the topic for discussion.
Oh - and by the way - we have 2 daughters.
I've seen people on TV commenting that giving children toy guns is a terrible thing. In fact, this condemnation moves towards general aggression play.
What I would like to ask is whether you agree that childern playing with toy guns is wrong, or not? And if so, why?
Before I had children I could totally understand the point. I even at one point thought that I would not allow my children toy guns.
However, now that I'm a parent I no longer see the argument for disallowing or discouraging such behaviour to be at all relevant.
children are children - they thrive on using their imagination. Any form of supposedly "aggressive play" is actually a form of essential social interraction, learning to develop a sense of social standing. Whereas blatant aggression, such as hitting, is something I'm not at all encouraging, actual play with guns and pretending to shoot one another is hardly a dangerous act to a child's psychology.
In fact, I'd argue the reverse - that a parent that stifles their child's social development in such a manner is likely to cause future psychological problems - perhaps especially through parental domination and acute feelings of insecurity that affects social interractions.
What do others here think? I'm happy to open the topic for discussion.
Oh - and by the way - we have 2 daughters.