Squirt Guns - Weigh In

[melohdy]

A thread over on Parenting got me thinking. Where do you stand on squirt guns/water guns for your J13er?

My H purchased a little plastic $1 squirt gun for Lilly a month or two ago. She really likes squirting us and herself with it. We also had little $1 squirt guns at her birthday party for kids to play with.

They are neon colors and only vaguely resemble guns at all. 

We were not allowed to have any guns whatsoever growing up. No squirt guns, nerf guns, airsoft or BB. We did not have any real guns in the house. My mom and sister were actually a little scandalized when they came over and saw that Lilly had a little squirt pistol. While it's not my favorite toy of hers, I don't really mind her having it. 

The thread over on Parenting is largely centered around the OP's 2.5 yr old being too young to have a squirt gun. I guess it never occurred to me that Lilly is too young to have one...MOTY. 

Weigh in, J13. How do you feel about water guns?

[colieann31]

We don't have any but I wouldn't care if Grayson had one. We had water gun fights every summer and Grayson probably will too.

[cl8badb]

J also has a neon water gun. We got it from the target dollar bin.

[subliminalrabbit]

Nope. Not until he's old enough to ask for one and we can have a conversation about fake guns and real guns. Even then, I'm not sure what route we'll go.

GREAT podcast ep about this recently on One Bad Mother btw!

[germaphobe]

I guess I never really thought it would bother me until my friends LO had a nerF gun that resembled a real gun and he was pointing it at me and at E. It freaked me out a bit. I used to have a strong stance against guns but DH has a few that he shoots as a hobby but they are all locked up and E has never seen them.

[huckleberry08]

I was raised around guns and know D will be exposed to them, given that we have many rural relatives. As a result, I feel very uncomfortable having any kind of toy weapon. I feel like it's important to establish early on that it is not ok to point anything even remotely resembling a gun at another person. It's a very real danger here so I take it seriously. It's how I was raised.

[cl8badb]

Hmmmm maybe i will make his disappear. My husband wanted him to have a water gun so before he got him something crazy i just picked up the $1 one bc it didnt resemble a real gun.

[cl8badb]

Jun 30, 2015 19:35:19 GMT -5 thelorax said:

Jun 30, 2015 19:27:12 GMT -5 cl8badb said:

Hmmmm maybe i will make his disappear. My husband wanted him to have a water gun so before he got him something crazy i just picked up the $1 one bc it didnt resemble a real gun.

Target has squirt "sticks" in the dollar aisle and squirt stick dinosaurs. They are really fun and toddler easy to use, but look NOTHING like a gun.

I'll check out the sticks. Sometimes i dont have luck finding stuff in my dollar bin that some of you ladies have found.

[vasc]

I don't think I'd actively go out and buy a water gun for DD, but if she received one as a gift I probably wouldn't make a big deal out of it.

I'm inclined to say no to Nerf products, but I'm open.

We are otherwise a non-gun house.

[lizzybizzy]

Not yet, when he does they will need to be neon and very fake looking.

[heelibrarian]

DS has had a small arsenal of squirt guns since he was probably 3 (and we're like @winesconstantly, rules and all that). DD has trouble working the trigger anyway so she's been playing around with a squirt bottle and loves it.

[musicalsilver]

We don't have any squirt guns, so I'd probably go the squirt tube route if we wanted to get a squirty device. I know his current school bans all gun-y things, so I would want to keep it consistent at home. DH doesn't give a hoot though.

[momofcatan]

I feel like the naive, suburban Canadian. I see no problem with squirt guns. I understand everyone's concerns and they are legitimate, but I still don't see a reason to keep toy gun-like things away from DD. I feel like the chances of her ever being close to a real gun are so slim, I don't see the concern.

[nursemommy13]

Jun 30, 2015 21:11:24 GMT -5 momofcatan said:

I feel like the naive, suburban Canadian. I see no problem with squirt guns. I understand everyone's concerns and they are legitimate, but I still don't see a reason to keep toy gun-like things away from DD. I feel like the chances of her ever being close to a real gun are so slim, I don't see the concern.

This for us too. We've got squirt guns. All the kids that come swim in our pool are boys ranging in age from 3-13- of course we have squirt guns around. I don't see any problem with it. Nor do I have a problem with nerf guns or whatever. We never had BB guns growing up and was never around real guns. But I feel like kids can still have fun with play nerf/squirt guns.

[anustart1]

Jun 30, 2015 20:30:31 GMT -5 heelibrarian said:

DS has had a small arsenal of squirt guns since he was probably 3 (and we're like @winesconstantly, rules and all that). DD has trouble working the trigger anyway so she's been playing around with a squirt bottle and loves it.

This is us, but honestly the hottest commodity around the pool is water cannons. And the squirt sticks. They just can't get the hang of squirt guns anyway.

Also you know you have a nerd when their biggest concern for squirt weapons is their accuracy in helping you erase sidewalk chalk mistakes. Because that is where we are at.

[skk]

B doesn't have any squirt guns (or other toy guns) and we've already had to talk to him a few times when he's pretended to have a gun and was "shooting" at things. I'm not going to buy any, but I wouldn't take a water gun away if someone gave it to him either. He has lots of older cousins and our friends' kids so I know we won't be able to keep him away from all things guns, but we'll just try to push the rules.

[huckleberry08]

Jun 30, 2015 22:26:20 GMT -5 thelorax said:

Jun 30, 2015 21:11:24 GMT -5 momofcatan said:

I feel like the naive, suburban Canadian. I see no problem with squirt guns. I understand everyone's concerns and they are legitimate, but I still don't see a reason to keep toy gun-like things away from DD. I feel like the chances of her ever being close to a real gun are so slim, I don't see the concern.

If I wasn't it in U.S. I wouldn't care, but in the land where you never know who is packing in their purse I don't want the association that shooting someone in the face is fun.

This. They are everywhere where I live, including people's cars and purses. Sad but true. Pretending to shoot people cannot be considered funny at any level for us.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't let him participate at a party or something, or use a squirt tube. We just won't have them, if I have my way. Which is doubtful...

[anustart1]

The other day DH was pretending he was a pirate and breakfast and brandishing his butter knife a G and pretending to ask for a fight. G went in the other room and built a gun of blocks and said now he was ready to fight daddy. DH said "what? You're just going to kill me? I only have a tiny sword!" G went into the other room and made a larger construction and said "ok this is better. This is a control panel. Now I can control you instead of kill you." I'm honestly not sure which weapon scared DH more. It's weird that even though we have no toy guns in the house G knew how to make one as a weapon.

[anustart1]

Jul 1, 2015 7:38:00 GMT -5 mcbush said:

Jul 1, 2015 6:51:10 GMT -5 anustart1 said:

The other day DH was pretending he was a pirate and breakfast and brandishing his butter knife a G and pretending to ask for a fight. G went in the other room and built a gun of blocks and said now he was ready to fight daddy. DH said "what? You're just going to kill me? I only have a tiny sword!" G went into the other room and made a larger construction and said "ok this is better. This is a control panel. Now I can control you instead of kill you." I'm honestly not sure which weapon scared DH more. It's weird that even though we have no toy guns in the house G knew how to make one as a weapon.

So there was a study done where kids were only given blocks/Legos to play with, kids with no prior "gun" exposure made guns out of the block/Legos.

Anecdote: my parents didn't allow the boys to have guns, growing up, they had constructs and built guns out of them. They were very elaborate.

Era: I'm lolling about the control panel.

Yeah this is why I wasn't super "no gun toys" in my house. I would rather he understand and respect them instead of seeing one for the first time in the wrong situation and not having a grasp about them being a weapon. My 3 male cousins around the same age were raised in no weapon toys households and they built them out of sticks, rocks, etc. I thought it was weird a few weeks ago when Liam's mom spelled out GUN in front of him, as if a 5 year old wasn't even going to know the word. I kind of laughed and said, "Liam has said gun Trish. That ship has sailed."

[cl8badb]

One of our relatives is friends with my neighbors.
My neighbors have a six year old. He has toy guns.
The two boys we are related to dont have toy guns at home.
When the two boys come to my neighbors house they are always playing with the guns.

Maybe having the toys at home and teaching safety is better than having them play at a friends with no lesson?

[sctiger]

We don't have real guns (well, we have a BB gun) and are just not gun people in general but I don't have a problem with water guns. To me those are clearly different from regular guns and I think most kids understand the difference. We do plan to have serious talks with our kids about guns and I think they should be well educated on the matter.

[babygsmommy]

We own guns and will talk to ds when he is older. As for squirt guns, they are toys and kids should be taught the difference. I'm not going to buy him one but if he gets them as gifts, I would let him play with them.

[vitafelix]

I posted this article to my Facebook and one of my friends commented, "unless your kid is black"

[cl8badb]

Jul 3, 2015 6:11:49 GMT -5 vitafelix said:

I posted this article to my Facebook and one of my friends commented, "unless your kid is black"

You mean your ex-friend.

[vitafelix]

Jul 3, 2015 21:11:07 GMT -5 cl8badb said:

Jul 3, 2015 6:11:49 GMT -5 vitafelix said:

I posted this article to my Facebook and one of my friends commented, "unless your kid is black"

You mean your ex-friend.

Oof. I meant to post this to the toy gun article thread, not the squirt gun thread... goodbyecb.proboards.com/thread/48179/article-toy-guns-ok 
You know. Since that kid got shot. Running around with a toy gun.

[subliminalrabbit]

Jul 3, 2015 21:18:06 GMT -5 vitafelix said:

Jul 3, 2015 21:11:07 GMT -5 cl8badb said:

You mean your ex-friend.

Oof. I meant to post this to the toy gun article thread, not the squirt gun thread... goodbyecb.proboards.com/thread/48179/article-toy-guns-ok 
You know. Since that kid got shot. Running around with a toy gun.

Yeah, I think that's actually an accurate response unfortunately...  

[majwv8]

There was a story on the news the other day about people buying phone cases that looked like very realistic guns. The police were on urging people not to buy them. You are asking to become a target with something like that.

[LaBellaVida]

I was always anti toy guns in my house. Guns just scare me to begin with-and I didn't want my kids growing up thinking it was on to point and "shoot" people for fun.
My husband is very much into guns, and thinks it's OK that the boys have play guns. I think he's thinking he grew up with them, so what's the big deal?

Anyway- needless to say my older boys have them/had them. They have had a lot of fun with them, but I still have conversations with them about 'gun' safety.

My oldest has a BB gun, and my husband really teaches him about gun safety, even with that. He treats it like a real gun.

So I think when it comes to even toy guns, a safety talk should be done. And talk about the difference between play and real ect.

Owen is far too little to have a play gun- but I'm not opposed to him and Liam having one when much older.

[vasc]

Jun 30, 2015 18:35:16 GMT -5 subliminalrabbit said:

Nope. Not until he's old enough to ask for one and we can have a conversation about fake guns and real guns. Even then, I'm not sure what route we'll go.

GREAT podcast ep about this recently on One Bad Mother btw!

Thank you for suggesting that podcast!  I downloaded it and we listened to it during our road trip Sunday.  Lots to think about.