Toy Guns In Childcare

[mamamanda]

First of all, I know this can be a very controversial subject & its not my intention to stir up a debate. I know many providers ban them completely while others allow them. Our family background includes many professions that include the use of guns: sheriff, military, teaching gun education classes, & owning collections. Because my children are see guns in many of the homes that we visit regularly I choose to allow toy guns in our home. I use the opportunity to teach my children about gun safety, that we never point guns at another person, we only shoot targets or the allusive "bad guys" if they are playing war or police officers, or their most recent endeavor: shooting the zybugs from"Wreck it Ralph". They may not pretend another child is the bad guy. For the most part this has worked for me until now. A new child in care has taken gun play to a new level, insisting on "shooting" other children, getting rowdy & running through the house, and yelling at the "enemy." Also, he is constantly fighting over the toy guns. Last week I took the guns away & put them up for after daycare hours. This little guy asks for them constantly, tries to draw me into an argument about them, & then uses his finger or other toys instead & attempts to continue the"gun game." So my issue is the behavior and not the toy guns themselves. My question is this: If you ban gun play altogether, do you have trouble with kids making guns out of other things like legos, fingers, etc & how do you handle that? If you allow gun play, what kind of rules do you have in place to safe guard against this type of behavior & how do you enforce them? I'm strongly leaning toward removing all toy guns from the play area, but I still don't know what to do about the pretend guns they make. Thanks.

[Thriftylady]

I ban them but not because I am against them. I ban any gun, including finger guns for one reason. I have heard about to many kids getting kicked out of school for eating a sandwich in the shape of a gun, playing finger guns, etc. So my ban is mostly to get them used to the very strict rules they will have at school. So far I have not had an issue with them making a gun like you speak of. I do agree with you that this is a behavior issue and not a "gun" issue. I am guessing that you are going to have to do a lot of reminding and redirection. Maybe make parents aware and ask for their help.

[Controlled Chaos]

I have zero toy guns, but those buggers will make a gun out of legos in 5 sec flat. Like ms thrifty I want to prepare them the harshness of public school rules. My mantra "guns are for hunting. There are no bad guys, just bad choices." I encourage children to arrest "bad guys" and take them to jail. It takes lots of redirection. If a child was hell bent on a behavior I didn't like they would lose the privilege of choosing an activity. I give one warning then "you may do a puzzle now" or "time to color"

[Starburst]

I was thinking about for my future program to for the most part ban toy guns and maybe only allowed older school age kids have water guns for outside play during the summer (where the object is to soak the person, not 'kill' them); but now that I live in a colder climate I don't think that would be much of an option anymore. I personally would just avoid it as much as possible with kids under 6 or 7 because most of them still have a hard time differentiating between reality and fantasy, though that can also very from child to child (I knew cartoons weren't real and wanted to be a cartoonist when I was 6/7, but I've known 9 and 10 year olds who don't seem to understand they just drawings with voice actors- because they try to re-enact what they do).

But I'm mostly against it in daycare because I grew up in a community where there was gang riots or a shootings almost other everyday (sadly that's not even much of an exaggeration) and the last thing most kids in that area needed to be reminded of was the reality of gang violence/ guns in their community. Do you know how many little gang banger wannabes I knew? That mentality is so annoying to work with and I'm not one for corporal punishmentor but you can't help but to want to just slap them upside the head (Sorry, rant).

Not to mention you never know where parents stand on the debate and it's usually easier just to avoid it all together than to bring it up and have several parents complain about it (if a parent is advocating because they notice you don't have actively have toy gun play in your program, I would consider that a major red flag). If they allow it at home that's one thing but they also need to understand that daycare, school, and other people's home rules are different than their home rules (and they need to respect the rules where ever they are at).

With the kid I currently watch (12 year old boy with autism who is mentally 4 or 5 years old) and my cousin's 5 year old son with ADHD, I try to remind them not to repeat what they hear on TV (or what certain people say) because they're not always nice things to say (most kids' shows these days have rude, and even mean spirited, humor) and tell them that if they keep repeating what they hear on TV they won't get to watch it when they are with me (I know it's harder for the 12 year old because he echos everything). Does this kid possibly watch alot of cop shows or play violent video games (or have an older sibling that does)?

[Starburst]

I have zero toy guns, but those buggers will make a gun out of legos in 5 sec flat. Like ms thrifty I want to prepare them the harshness of public school rules. My mantra "guns are for hunting. There are no bad guys, just bad choices." I encourage children to arrest "bad guys" and take them to jail. It takes lots of redirection. If a child was hell bent on a behavior I didn't like they would lose the privilege of choosing an activity. I give one warning then "you may do a puzzle now" or "time to color"

Also, one good thing about superhero play (especially with rowdy boys) is that you can remind them that Batman and Superman don't use guns or kill people (that's their #1 rule).

[Annalee]

I ban them but not because I am against them. I ban any gun, including finger guns for one reason. I have heard about to many kids getting kicked out of school for eating a sandwich in the shape of a gun, playing finger guns, etc. So my ban is mostly to get them used to the very strict rules they will have at school. So far I have not had an issue with them making a gun like you speak of. I do agree with you that this is a behavior issue and not a "gun" issue. I am guessing that you are going to have to do a lot of reminding and redirection. Maybe make parents aware and ask for their help.

My family is full of hunters. That being said, I AM NOT against guns at all....However, the schools here are just as you stated. There are Kindergarten children being expelled here for simply telling about their dad 'blowing away' a deer or for "shooting a bulls eye on a target". There is zero tolerance and it is enforced consistently. So I redirect if guns come up in any way in my child care program. I explain this to parents at interview process.

[originalkat]

My hubby is a veteran (special forces Marine) and still does sport shooting. So we are a gun-loving family as well. But my kiddos are going into public schools where gun play is NOT allowed in any form. So I choose to enforce that now so they are used to those rules in expectations.

[Alwaysgreener]

No toy guns here either. Guns have there place but they are not toys. Therefore why have a "toy gun", mixed message. Water guns come in other shapes (had a porrot once) and spray bottles serve the same purpose, water balloons are just as fun.
I don't stop there though, no weapons period. Swords, knives, grenades........ (not sure where I stand on those army guys, I heard a kid got expelled for having those in school)

[Second Home]

I also do not allow gun play . I am not against guns in general but I feel that guns are not something that young children should think is fun or a toy.

[Unregistered]

What I learned from my mentor- a real ECE pro, was that the kids seem to do well with a. If they made the weapon themselves (cause if you give them a toy gun, all it can be is a gun. Legos can be anything), and b. If they engage in gun play, have the rule that they must ask if the other person wants to play: so if Nick is shooting Emily and she is not involved with the game, he would need to ask if she is playing it with him. That way the ones getting 'shot' at have the right to decide if they want that to happen or not. This seems to work well. If no one agrees to be shot at, the shooter gets bored of it and moves on. If others agree to it, they like it, no one is hurt, so that's fine.

[AuntTami]

What I learned from my mentor- a real ECE pro, was that the kids seem to do well with a. If they made the weapon themselves (cause if you give them a toy gun, all it can be is a gun. Legos can be anything), and b. If they engage in gun play, have the rule that they must ask if the other person wants to play: so if Nick is shooting Emily and she is not involved with the game, he would need to ask if she is playing it with him. That way the ones getting 'shot' at have the right to decide if they want that to happen or not. This seems to work well. If no one agrees to be shot at, the shooter gets bored of it and moves on. If others agree to it, they like it, no one is hurt, so that's fine.

I respectfully disagree with this. We are a gun loving household(hubby is a CC holder, we're both avid hunters, and I enjoy shooting for sport) but my daycare kids are not allowed to play with toy guns or anything shaped like a gun at all. Not even Legos turned into guns.

Guns are not toys. They are weapons and they can kill you. They're not something to play with, not even pretend with.

Even if it's a Lego or a pop tart shaped like a gun, you NEVER aim it in the direction of a person. It's the most important rule of gun safety and by teaching them to never point even pretend guns in the direction of people, it encourages them to always be aware of where the muzzle of a gun is pointed. Fake, real, toy gun, pop tart, BB gun, real gun etc. they should NEVER pointed at another person. Ever. For any reason. BB guns aren't even allowed in our family. Hubby never had one, and our kids won't either. They're not a gun but they're not a toy. They're not a toy because they can hurt someone and they're not a gun because they can't kill someone.

[Blackcat31]

I DO allow gun play.

It's part of the internal struggle between good an evil and no matter how much you ban it, ignore it or pretend it doesn't exist...it does.

I DO allow my DCK's to play guns.

We have rules and consequences.

It has NEVER been an issue beyond daycare.

What the kids learn here is that schools won't permit it but I will.

I believe in education not eradication.

Banning it does NOT teach the kids anything and whether your family is or isn't gun-friendly, hunters or for or against guns has nothing to do with the normal development of kids in the preschool years when it comes to any type of play that involves the back and forth between good and bad.

In fact allowing gun play can actually be beneficial to the kids in the long run. Most child therapists believe allowing gun play IS good for kids as it's necessary for them to process the concept through play.

https://empoweringchildhood.wordpress.com/2013/05/28/children-need-gun-play/

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/08/keeping-kids-from-toy-guns-how-one-mother-changed-her-mind/278518/

[MrsSteinel'sHouse]

I DO allow gun play.

It's part of the internal struggle between good an evil and no matter how much you ban it, ignore it or pretend it doesn't exist...it does.

I DO allow my DCK's to play guns.

We have rules and consequences.

It has NEVER been an issue beyond daycare.

What the kids learn here is that schools won't permit it but I will.

I believe in education not eradication.

Banning it does NOT teach the kids anything and whether your family is or isn't gun-friendly, hunters or for or against guns has nothing to do with the normal development of kids in the preschool years when it comes to any type of play that involves the back and forth between good and bad.

In fact allowing gun play can actually be beneficial to the kids in the long run. Most child therapists believe allowing gun play IS good for kids as it's necessary for them to process the concept through play.

https://empoweringchildhood.wordpress.com/2013/05/28/children-need-gun-play/

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/...r-mind/278518/

We do play cowboys (and yes I have a toob that they have guns) We play police etc. Now I do not have toy guns back here. They know my son (now 18 sigh) shoots (competitive shooter) and they know he shoots paper. Shooting is an Olympic sport. I do not "encourage" gun play but sometimes it makes sense. When my son was very young my cousin told me go ahead and get him the little six shooters, he is a boy he will make guns anyway. And he was right... sticks, legos etc. There is something very satisfying for a little guy to go powpow with his finger. We live in a very rural, hunting area. These kids will play "deer camp" because they go to deer camp and watch the deer being butchered. I had a little 3 year old girl that could tell you all about hunting and deer camp.
Like with all things- I may discourage or redirect them if things get too wild
I do discourage "zombies, zombies, zombies" because that drives me crazy!

[Blackcat31]

We do play cowboys (and yes I have a toob that they have guns) We play police etc. Now I do not have toy guns back here. They know my son (now 18 sigh) shoots (competitive shooter) and they know he shoots paper. Shooting is an Olympic sport. I do not "encourage" gun play but sometimes it makes sense. When my son was very young my cousin told me go ahead and get him the little six shooters, he is a boy he will make guns anyway. And he was right... sticks, legos etc. There is something very satisfying for a little guy to go powpow with his finger. We live in a very rural, hunting area. These kids will play "deer camp" because they go to deer camp and watch the deer being butchered. I had a little 3 year old girl that could tell you all about hunting and deer camp.
Like with all things- I may discourage or redirect them if things get too wild
I do discourage "zombies, zombies, zombies" because that drives me crazy!

I don't buy toy plastic guns either but I don't tell them they can't use Legos, sticks, fingers etc....

I also think it opens doors to the conversation and talking about and discussing things is much more effective than simply banning them.

[AslansG1rl]

I don't buy toy plastic guns either but I don't tell them they can't use Legos, sticks, fingers etc....

I also think it opens doors to the conversation and talking about and discussing things is much more effective than simply banning them.

I really like this.

Our society tends to avoid certain topics, brush them under the rug, or ignore these types of issues, but, ignoring or refusing to talk about something just because it is horrible, scary, controversial, or sad doesn't make the issue go away.

I love the rule of telling the kids they aren't permitted to EVER point the gun at someone. I will definetly use that!