Warning Rant Ahead!

[katfishinking]

im a proud grandpa of 6. my oldest is 11 this sat. she is already shooting a pellet gun rather well. she has only been shooting it for about 3 months, but she can put 9 of 10 shots in a pop-can sized circle. the only mistake I have made with her so far is we took her to a gun show in Washington (in.), and she found a cricket .22 rifle. I bet she asked a dozen times if she could have it. we did not get it for her, they wanted 170.00. we told her when she gets her hunter ed card we would spring for one. now she wants to know when we can get that. again real proud grandpa. and good for you too, raising your daughter to be a strong individual. society could use more people like us.

 

[Boonl1776]

Nakeinate and BehindBlueIs,

You are their parents. You know what's best for you kids. I will never disagree with you about that. I just had a gut feeling about my kids and how I wanted to handle things.

 

[nakinate]

Boonl1776

Absolutely. Like I said, I completely understand teaching your kids that a gun is not a toy. I'm glad you're not doing that by forbidding them altogether. Aside from abusive situations I'm not one to tell people how they should parent.

 

[nakinate]

Tell him if you ever win the Powerball you're going to buy hundreds of Glock forties, load them up, and hand them out to school kids on Halloween.

This is funny

 

[churchmouse]

Push a kid to hard about something being "evil" w/o any facts to back it up and when he's old enough to rebel...he's gonna. I bet Hippy's youngster ends up with a basement like the dude in Tremors.

My son is well acquainted with firearms. He has his own Savage Rascal .22 and when his hands are big enough I'll start him on a .22 revolver. He has a metric butt ton of toy guns and has yet to confuse a real gun with a toy gun any more than I did, and my toy guns were a lot more realistic looking than the stuff they crank out for the youngsters today.

It is up to the individual to set the standards by which they raise their children.
BlueI's has his, I have mine and so on. In the end we will see some dividends and some also some losses from these decisions. No one is right all the time. My son had a few toy guns but not many if memory serves. He was with me in the shop building go-karts, dirt bikes and the like. We spent a lot of time at the race track or in the woods. He had more real guns and was taught the proper way to handle them.
We all do what we feel is correct. I personally think a total ban on something like this is a bit much but I am not supporting that household.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Nakeinate and BehindBlueIs,

You are their parents. You know what's best for you kids. I will never disagree with you about that. I just had a gut feeling about my kids and how I wanted to handle things.

I wasn't criticizing you, just to be clear. Frankly, I'm not sure I know best for my kid. I'm sure I've screwed the pooch here and there, and will do so again in the future, but I try and I've kept him in one piece so far.

 

[88GT]

Wow... I hadn't heard that. It just makes me wonder why in the world she didn't secure all those weapons .. Thanks for the info.

Do we know for a fact she didn't? Clearly not enough in hindsight. But is that fair? They are highly publicized, and a little exaggerated by those who use them to push an agenda, but the relative risk of homicidal sprees by those suffering mental disorders isn't really all that common, by any standard.

But to the OP's point, I have never, never, ever let my kids play with toy guns. Not even a cap gun. I didn't want to send them a mixed message. The crystal clear message I wanted them to understand is: Guns are not toys! Period! They are tools designed for a very specific purpose, and carry with them great responsibility. If you ever forget that, tragedy ensues.

Your kids, your rules, but I don't think there's an ounce of evidence to support the notion that kids can't distinguish between reality and fantasy when properly instructed. If they couldn't, little girls couldn't have kitchens and boys couldn't have power tools.

 

[indiucky]

"My uncle and aunt were staying with a couple and their two grown sons in New Hampshire (one of their sons is dating my twenty something hippie cousin" So, one of your cousins is dating another one of your cousins?? Why am I hearing banjo music??

*Edit* Nevermind... It took me a couple of reads, but I think I understand now! LOL

You know us Southern Indiana folk have deep Kentucky roots.

It shore 'nuff made sense when I wuz a writin' it...But, with the benefit of hindsight my sentence structure could have used a little help...

 

[Boonl1776]

I wasn't criticizing you, just to be clear. Frankly, I'm not sure I know best for my kid. I'm sure I've screwed the pooch here and there, and will do so again in the future, but I try and I've kept him in one piece so far.

I know you weren't. I didn't take it that way. We only get to be parents once, and without any practice, so we're bound to make mistakes. I'd like some re-do's on a few things I did as a parent.