Do your kids have toy soldiers/guns? (1 Viewer)

[steveo]

Hi all,
with our first child on the way, i was talking to the wife about toy soldiers and military toys in general . She`s against our child having any form of ww2 /modern military toys ,no toy soldiers /toy guns/ no m16 or uzi lookalikes!
She says its a bad example to have a kid carrying a plastic gun,or toy soldiers?Funny didn`t turn me into a gun toting criminal ,not yet anyway.

Then i worded it differntly ,i said what if our child wanted a cowboy or indian fancy dress or a knights outfit and plastic winchester or sword ,she said it would be ok to play cowboys and indians ,or Robin Hood etc. So i said is it ok to rob rich people (Robin hood) and she said yes because he gave it to the poor Then i said what about cowboys with guns shooting Indians with bows and arrows ,she`d be happy with that because it was such along time ago!

What twisted logic

Anyway joking aside the debate still rages, do any of you other collecters,let your children play/collect toy soldiers/military toys

regards steve

 

[Steven Chong]

Dear Steve,
My son is presently 10 years old, and has toy soldiers and guns. He is heavily influenced by the media, so he has a large collection of Lord of the Rings figures and Star War toy laser guns and light sabers. When Lord of the Rings was in theaters, he made himself a bow and arrows and pretended to be Legolas. When Star Wars was out, he and his friends would have light saber battles. During recess, they made up an elaborate game pretending to be Jedi knights and Clone troopers, cupping their hands like they were holding an imaginary light saber. His current rage is Nerf dart tag. His friends and he run around all day and play capture the flag, shooting each other with the foam darts. My son has classmates whose parents do not allow any toy soldiers or guns, but everyone of them always want to come to our house and play.

 

[sceic2]

Interesting topic for discussion. My now 30-year old son played with GI Joes, the 6 inch versions, and with toy guns. He is now in the US Army and I am very proud of him. He has been to Iraq twice and served an extended tour in Korea, he is scheduled to go back to Korea in a few months, again. He has been in for the last 11 years and obviously is making a career of it.

His experience with guns and toy soldiers was not something I encouraged, he just wanted these particular toys and I did not discourage him.

My three grandson's all play with toy soldiers and guns. They are healthy, well adjusted children who happen to like to pretend play as heros. Sometimes of course they like to be the bad guy, but who does'nt. Its fun to be bad as long as you don't have to face the consequences of reality.

Perhaps not allowing children to play with soldiers or toy guns can create a sense of the forbidden and therefore create a greater attraction because it is forbidden. After all, not every friend your children will play with will have the same parenting rules.

It takes far more than playing with WWII soldiers and plastic guns to make a killer or sociopath.

 

[sceic2]

Dear Steve,
My son is presently 10 years old, and has toy soldiers and guns. He is heavily influenced by the media, so he has a large collection of Lord of the Rings figures and Star War toy laser guns and light sabers. When Lord of the Rings was in theaters, he made himself a bow and arrows and pretended to be Legolas. When Star Wars was out, he and his friends would have light saber battles. During recess, they made up an elaborate game pretending to be Jedi knights and Clone troopers, cupping their hands like they were holding an imaginary light saber. His current rage is Nerf dart tag. His friends and he run around all day and play capture the flag, shooting each other with the foam darts. My son has classmates whose parents do not allow any toy soldiers or guns, but everyone of them always want to come to our house and play.

Steven your home sounds like mine. I forgot about the Nerf dart guns. We have at least 10 of them and I am always going on line and ordering replacement darts by the bulk. I have a lot of fun playing too. I also forgot how they do release tension for us adults as we play war.

 

[Wraith]

Hi Steve,

I've got a 3 and a 6 yr old and whilst I've not actively thrust toy pop guns at them, I have no great aversion to them. It's a sign of the times. You can only protect your kids from so much and we're living in a world where guns appear every 10 minutes on TV and hang from every other toy shop aisle.

My theory is if I ban them (along with bows / arrows, swords, water pistols), then they'll only end up being more curious. I'd rather I controlled their 'introduction', at least that way there can be a bit of education involved in the process.

I apreciate that here in the UK, access to firearms is strictly limited so it might be a bit of a different scenario in the States, but you ain't going to stop them getting access to toy guns as they get older. I suspect they'll do it with you, or in spite of you.

My parents were adament non-smokers. Guess who's now paying Her Majesty's Government £4 per day for the privilage.

As for the toy soldier side, I wish. I've been desperately trying (probably too hard) to get the kids in to this hobby. It makes my feeble excuses to the wife a little more plausable. I even painted up a set of Airfix figures in a pink, purple and cream camo pattern to get my 3 yr old girl interested. Barbie wins this particular contest, apparently.

Whatever line you end up taking, I wish you all the best.

BTW, stock up on any collectables you are after now, cause in another few months, I suspect you will be having your wages paid directly in to the local nursery shops. Ah, only another 18 years to go before my wages are mine again.....

All the best,
Simon

 

[Steven Chong]

Steven your home sounds like mine. I forgot about the Nerf dart guns. We have at least 10 of them and I am always going on line and ordering replacement darts by the bulk. I have a lot of fun playing too. I also forgot how they do release tension for us adults as we play war.

Michael,
We have at least 15. Have you purchased the modified Nerf guns on eBay?

 

[sceic2]

Michael,
We have at least 15. Have you purchased the modified Nerf guns on eBay?

We have four that the center post has been removed and the darts are solid. We don't let the little ones play with those, they are for the bigger kids, I mean adults. If you double pump the gun and are close your target, they can sting. Lots of fun when you've have a few beers and its just after the sun goes down. The neighbors all think we are nuts.

 

[Steven Chong]

... no m16 or uzi lookalikes! She says its a bad example to have a kid carrying a plastic gun ...

My wife and I do not allow our son or his friends to play with guns outside the house. There have been several incidents where police thought a toy gun was real and shot a child. We also tell him it is very impolite to make a "gun" with your fingers and hand and point it at someone. Fortunately, my son understands our concerns.

 

[steveo]

Thanks for the comments,ive had to convince the wife that King and Countrys latest releases are in the childs interests,i mean come on which child wouldnt want a King and Country Panzer Meyer's Command Vehicle

Im just waiting for King and Country to release 1/1 scale nursery items maybe a cot in russian front camo ,limited edition of course

 

[steveo]

Surely your kidding about "the using your fingers as a gun"? At least get the child a spud gun

 

[Leadmen]

My kids were exposed to guns and military toys and never had a problem. I think the kids that get no exposure to these toys could end up worse when older. My daughter won't let Grandson have toy guns but ok when he comes here to play with them. My son-in-law is a bow and rifle hunter and have deer hanging in garage during season but their son can't have a toy gun. Go figure.If fact grandson is here since last week and no hurry to go home. Loves all the games and stuff here. Leadmen

 

[jazzeum]

My thought about this is that the more you try to keep something away from a child, the more he or she wants it.

We initially followed the practice of keeping guns away from my son. But you know what: he was the one who got me interested in toy soldiers. So go figure.

 

[DMNamiot]

Hi Guys,

As a kid I had guns in the house and learned from a very early age to respect them and never point them at anyone etc. I feel that if my kids want to have play guns they can and there is no stopping them from being interested in the same things you are, I had the play guns and bb guns and the bows and arrows either real store boughts or made from stickes and string etc. No one ever got hurt and it was good for us to play army or cowboys and indians or knights and dragons etc. Now my x sister in law thought these toys were the root of all evil and should be banned and so what did my nephew do when he was about 4 he built a gun from legos and hunted his sister or whatever he wanted in the back yard. Have to like that kind of determination in a kid.
Now I will always go with the non PC solution when pressed but it is natural for little kids to want to play with these types of toys and they should be allowed and when old enough taught that the real guns are to be respected and never ever played with. Of course I also keep all of my guns in my gun safe and I'm the only one with the combo for it. So I guess its a matter of how much you want them to defy you and do things like build their own or play with their friends guns or blasters or light sabers. Remember its play and should be encouraged as they can expand their imaginations.
I guess its mainly a matter of perception and education that can keep the kids safe. Of all the kids on my block that played with toy guns and played army I was the only one that decided to make that my career so just because we played with these toys doesnt mean they will go into the service after they grow up.

Good luck

Dave

 

[OzDigger]

I don't think it did me any harm. When I was a kid we were heavily influenced by action/war tv serials such as 'Combat' and 'The Samurai' and spy shows like The Man from UNCLE, James Bond etc. And because I was raised in a country town we all had huge back yards where we could dig tunnels and bunkers and play 'war' for most of the day.

I suspect Political Correctness has taken away a lot of the 'excessive' types of behaviour that is a natural part of the male process of growing up. I feel rough (but safe) play helped me and my friends to learn that you can get hurt so you learn to play by certain rules. Perhaps by such play we also learned to cope with dealing with the pressure of adult life.

Whereas these days children seem to learn violence from computer and console games where the child player never experiences the real pain of the character they are playing. And if they do die, that are soon regenerated to fight again. And while playing these indoor games the kids just get fatter and lazier. Which to me makes cap guns, toy bows and arrows etc much heathier, in more ways than one.

 

[fishead19690]

I was always into toy soldiers and guns and bow and arrows when I was a kid and we would always make our own bows and arrows and go and shoot them in the medows and woods near the house and my dad had gotten a bow and some hunting tipped(blades on four sides)arrows and wouldn,t let me use them when he took me to the field to teach me how to shoot the bow and would make me use the practice tipped arrows and one day when he wasn,t home I took the deer killer tipped arrows out to the field and was shooting them at a target we had made in the woods just shooting the arrows from our home made bows and after telling my freind never to shoot when one of us was getting our arrows back from the target he shoot me in the leg and it stuck in pretty good but, I hid the wound from my father who would have lost his mind on me.

So if you have these kind of things around the house make sure they are locked up and teach your kids about the safty of these things like my dad did but also thing about what your kids friends might do also. I can tell you first hand that an arrow in the leg does not feel good. The worst part of the story is that my freind at the time laughed at the fact that he shoot me in the leg because I just looked down at my leg stareing at the arrow stuck in my leg in disbelief and didn,t do anything.

I still see him from time to time. We were in grade school at the time and every time I see him he brings up the time he shoot me in the leg with the arrow and STILL seems to see humor in the subject.

My kids are into the video game thing mostly, the wifes son is the type who likes to stay in the house all the time and just play videos. When I was his age I was always in the woods catching snakes frogs and turtles and playing war with my friends.
My daughter is more like me and loves the out doors and also loves my del prado cavalry figures because see loves horses and has a new thing for getting a chair and getting up to them and playing with them while i,m at work. Her favorite is the young napoleon figure who see calls the king. See also seems to have picked up my old thing for frogs and turtles and also dinosuars.

 

[OzDigger]

True fish, actually I think modern kids miss out on a lot of the adventures we used to have as kids. But I have to say I'm a bit envious of you as I was brought up in Western New South Wales where the rainfall is under 20 inches per year, so meadows were a bit scarce. We had to make do with dry Aussie bush full of fatal snakes and other nasties.

However we did have a river about half a mile away with beautiful big willow trees that we used to climb and jump into the river off. And of course we had a swing that was fine if you timed your swing right. But more often than not some kid would swing back into the cliff bank and get a mouth full of dirt before falling off into the water - those were the days Naturally political correctness and environmental issues meant all those grand old introduced willow trees have since been cut down and replaced by yet more boring eucalypts.

I was never injured with an arrow but I got burnt a few times with fireworks and was hit with air rifle pellets on more than one occassion. Just before I got married I tried to recapture such antics by playing a few skirmish/paintball games at a local club where you had to capture the flag etc. At the end of the day my body looked like it had been gone over by an octopuss because I had circular red bruises all over me. It was lots of fun and great excersise but a bit on the expensive side if you hire all the time.

 

[Fubar]

Yes, My boy has grown up { just like his old man} with toy soliders and some toy guns.One of my favorite photos of him his when he was about 3, in his PJ'S sitting at the coffe table playing with all the old Marx and Airifx WW2 "GUYS".
When I'd come home from work he'd meet me at the door, hug my leg and say " blue and grey guys dad!"
As a matter of fact, I recall both he and his older sister used to like setting up all the plastic ancients we had, and knocking them over with spring powered catapults firing peanut MnM's!Building castles from blocks, dinosaurs, Godzillas and army men .
Pretty much harmless imaginitive fun.
I also, { just as was taught to myself by my old man} taught them about real weapons, tools, equipment from a very young age, around 9.Not that I let them use any of it, but just to make them aware.Treat them all with respect.Theres 1000 tools at Home depot that will kill or maim you if you don't.
They both start Hunters safety course in 2 weeks.

I agree, theres too much twisted tortured logic out there.I don't think sheltering kids from toy soldiers or toy guns does any good.They just need to understand the differance and that it is or was very real to people in our history and to respect that.

Fubarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[Showman]

I have a nine year old son and a four year old daughter. Both play with toy soldiers and toy guns. I found no reason not to allow it. We purchase guns with the ORANGE gun tip at the end of the barrell and have instructed not to point the gun at strangers. I too have found that other kids in the neighborhood ( who have are not allowed to play with War Toys ) spend alot time here playing with us.
Funny thing - my daughter was walking around the house last night with her Cinderella dress on carrying my son's Pirate's of the Carribean flint lock pistol. Shooting at imaginary bad guys. That was an interesting sight.
We have a few a Ron Barazo's playsets and many plastics around the house that we always set up on the dining roon table. It's good fun. I've found my daughter gets a little upset when we "shoot" up some bad guys. I guess that one of the differences between girls and boys.
I am bringing my son to Chicago as a guys weekend. I'll be a hoot I am sure. I have not been in four years.

 

[kilted vampire]

I have to agree with wraith about denying or banning stuff. It just makes things more attractive. I have been around firearms all of my life. My father was in the 101st and later a cop. I was raised around them and taught respect for the potential that exists with firearms. My father kept his weapons out of sight mind you but we knew where they were. High up in a closet.
There was an almost unfortunate accident as my father kept guns loaded. Why wouldn't you they are useless without ammo? Any roads , kids were over and naturally wanted to see. The almost part was that after retrieving the pistol I ejected a cartrige from the chamber in front of everyone. I got a wide eyed look and reloaded and put it back where it belonged.
Any roads, my son crawled over to me when he was less than a year old and picked up a cap for a muzzle loader and put it on the nipple,where it belonged. No way was this kid going to be denied his heritage. At four he fired his first 9mm. He has always had firearms or toy guns and he is the nicest guy you would ever want to meet. Both of us raised around firearms and toy guns did not turn into gun toting criminals.
The evil that exists are not in the implements, they are in the mind of the holder. Firearms are tools and can be used for fun,good or evil.Toy soldiers and weapons allow us to express what is sometimes not allowed otherwise. They are reminders of the past and sometimes present. They symbolize the best and sometime the worst of human nature. And, despite their flamboyance they are a tie to the real cost of our most human folly.

End of soapbox.

 

[pylgrym]

My sons are 26, 24, 22, 16 and 14 and all like guns, sport shooting and playing paintball. The older three have 17 hi-tech, hi-caliber weapons between them, my oldest having swopped his 12" G.I. Joe 'doll' for a 12 gauge single shot breakdown at a flea market in Alabama! . . . at age TWELVE!
In fact paintball the ONLY "ball" they play! They have a HUGE Hasbro 4" G.I. Joe collection. They play "HALO" and "Battlefield 2" multiplayer video games.
I am a Vietnam and a Desert Storm veteran and those two conflicts, 20 years apart, are seared into my sons' and (4) daughters' minds, as their mother has divorced me. My military service and fundamentalist Christianity may well have contributed to the death of my marriage, but the toy soldiers and toy guns will always be a good memory for them all.
NONE is interested in military service...
I took all of my kids to the toy soldier shows, flea markets etc. and they have their own hobbies now. Very good kids, all...
'
pEEgEE