My beautiful, wonderful, caring little boy is obsessed with weapons. He no longer plays with toys, not even monster trucks. It’s all weapons, all the time. Weapons and ropes. The ropes are to be worn around the waist as a means to store the weapons (and also to tie people up when necessary). Sticks are actually not sticks at all. They are swords, guns or a combination of the two. Acorns and nuts are, of course, bombs. Three dollars of Seth’s birthday money was used to purchase a plastic Grim Reaper ax nearly twice his size from Wal-Mart. I saw it as I approached the Halloween isle and tried desperately to divert his attention but it was no use. Shaun is apparently delighted with this new behavior. So proud that he whittled the end of one of my wooden curtain rods to resemble the point of a spear.
Part of me understands that all this is a very natural and passing stage. Seth will someday grow out of a love for daggers, and guns, and talking, clanging swords – surely he will do that. Some day he will not say things like “I will kill your heart” or “You want some of me?” So for now I just smile a bewildered smile at those comments and encourage him to move in slow motion during sword play so as to avoid whacking people in the head. When I have the chance I teach him what it means to love and treat others with respect. Sometimes I wonder if any of that makes sense to his testosterone-bathed brain. But then I hear comments like the one he told me from the back seat of the car the other day - “If you chop somebody’s leg off, that’s not very nice.” I looked at his angelic face in the rear view mirror. “That’s right, sweetheart,” I said. “It is not nice to chop someone’s leg off.” So despite all the tough talk and the weaponry, maybe he’s been listening to me after all.
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4 comments:
If it makes you feel any better, John liked to play with army men and play guns and all that boy stuff when he was little and he still turned out a pacifist.
At least Seth isn't reenacting scenes from Chucky like one of my preschoolers did.
This was a great post, by the way. It made me laugh out loud at least twice. You should submit it to a parenting magazine or something.
I never let our boys have weapons when they were little, thinking that I was heading off violent behaviors. They just bit their poptarts and pretzels into the shape of guns and shot me at the table. So I bought them weapons. They are males and they were born to fight something and win. As for the growing out of it...I am still waiting.
I'm a lover not a fighter.
omigod. This is beautiful! I'm going to send a link to a couple of good friends who I know are as bemused by little boys as you are.
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