Saw this tonight at a local mall and just had to share.
A little girl, maybe 4 or 5, was standing in front of the "House of the Dead" video game, a toy gun in each hand, firing away at the screen while a woman -- who I'm perhaps incorrectly assuming was her mom -- was filming away with her camera.
Maybe she was helping her daughter through a fear of monsters by making her feel empowered? Maybe they often have zombies with missing arms and gaping maws trudging toward their house?
I don't think I want to know. But I am pretty sure this disqualifies her mom from this year's Mom of the Year award.
This reminds me our trip to Children's Discovery Workshop Friday at the Y in Williamsport. Turns out it was also 'Kid Watch' day meaning parents could drop their kids at the workshop and leave them while they went to work out.
There were quite a few older kids there, age 10 or so, with younger siblings. I witnessed this group of kids walking around with toys gun 'shooting' each other. One actually wore a pretend bullet proof vest. Call me crazy but I kept Syd as far away from those kids as I could.
Also, I am doing my best to teach her about sharing and taking turns. The other children who were there seemed to not understand that concept at all. When it was to be Syd's turn, she got pushed aside by the other older little boys.
What do you even do in that situation? Is the gun-play a fact of life with boys?
I have 3 boys and 1 girl that range from 11-18 and the closest any of my kids got to playing with a gun were squirt guns and there were even rules for them. They were always taught to take turns and to wait patiently for your turn. If they pushed someone out of the way they had to go back to the back of the line or have a time out. But I think that I have been too strict compared to some of what I've seen with younger kids lately. But at least my kids have manners.