I have boys. A lot of boys. I am a girl. A girly-girl. I like dolls and make-up and doing hair and nails. I’m not just a girly-girl, I’m a pacifist girly-girl! I’m a boy-child’s worst nightmare! So of course, I was blessed with many boys.
I believed in nurture over nature with all of my heart. When I had my boys I knew that they would not be bound by conventional gender restrictions during their play. I bought dollhouse, baby dolls, and play kitchens. One thing I did not buy was guns. Guns – the ultimate Boy Toy – were against my nature and my moral compass. There was no place for a toy gun in my house. I closely scrutinized what my boys were exposed to on television to make sure that violence was not part of their vocabulary.
And I succeeded! That is, until one day my then-3-year-old first child pulled out some Legos and build himself what he affectionately coined “A power-ee”. It was, yes, a gun. In my zest to keep guns away from our house I forgot to ban ALL toys because, as I was about to learn, ANYTHING in the hands of a boy is a gun. Without even knowing the word for “gun” (I HAD succeeded, right?), he made up his own very apropos word.
Now, with older children and some hindsight, I understand that nature sometimes rules, no matter how obsessed the nurturer! You can keep the boy from the gun but you can’t keep the gun out of the boy!
Some of the common “guns” I’ve seen over the years include:
- Legos
- Blocks
- Sticks
- Hotdog
- Popsicle stick
- Toothbrush
- Spoon
- Barbie doll
- Hairbrush
- Baseball bat
- Paper towel tube
- Flute
- Harmonica (good for a stuttering gun noise, too)
- Crayon
- Paint brush
- Ruler
- dollhouse firehose
- Computer mouse
- Modeling clay/Playdoh
And, the grand finale and ultimate girly-girl nightmare…
I have friends who swear that their naked toddlers have used their own penises as a toy gun! Oh the horror! Is nothing sacred? Apparently not. Not in the hands of a boy!