Friday, July 31, 2015

Parental Paranoia!

When Pickles and I reached the park yesterday, one little kid was waiting for us. He was Pickles' new friend, who he had played with on the day before. As soon as we got there, he came running to us all excited.

And he handed Pickles one of his toys, a gun!

Now, I have this thing that I don't want Pickles to play with guns at all. Not that he is never going to be exposed to it. He will be but I prefer it to be at an age when he can understand the perils and he can decide for himself if he still wants to play with it (I pray not!). I don't like the idea of watching kids shoot at each other without really understanding what it means. Call me paranoid but I don't want to raise a violent kid.

So here I was, unsure about what to do. I knew that this little boy had made an attempt to share his toys, which is a big thing at that age! And I did not want to discourage him. I also wanted Pickles to make a new friend and learn to share his toys as well. But I didn't want him learning to shoot with guns. As I was still contemplating what to do, Pickles quickly took the gun from the little boy. I just stood there, dazed!

Pickles behaved like any toddler with a new toy would, he was super excited. He didnt know what it was. So first, he set to explore it. Then he checked if it was breakable, he threw it to the floor. When he saw the other kid making sounds with it, he tried to press buttons on his toy to check if it would make the same sounds. Once it did, he clapped his tiny hands with glee. Finally, he decided it was closest to a airplane and started to "fly" it with his hands held high. Soon enough, he was bored with it. He put the gun on the floor and went to find something else that had caught his attention. And the other little boy followed suit.

And I wonder why I worry so much. :/

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