Thursday, October 25, 2007

Great Bloghopping Find (after a small rant)

Thanks to Mary for the term bloghopping! Not even sure how I ended up here but I'm glad I did. Kids' playthings and gender are on my mind since Son 1 switched nursery schools. At the open house for last year's, which was Quaker, a parent asked about the Quaker influence on the curriculum, and the teacher laughed and said, "Well, I hate to say anything about non-violence because I don't know any nursery school that supports violent behavior!"

Be that as it may, it took less than five days at the new school for my son to come home talking about "shooters." And by the next week, "witches that shoot fire." (This from my poor boy who still finds many Thomas the Tank Engine stories "too scary.") And the next week, cocking his fingers like a pistol and making shooting noises.

My heart breaks.

He literally doesn't even know the word "gun" yet, and I suppose I should be grateful for small favors. And I know that "big" and "powerful" are his two favorite words and concepts in the entire world, so the attraction isn't a surprise. But it is amazing to me when other parents clearly don't feel the same way I do about sheltering small boys from these things. I had figured it was coming from one of the two boys in the class who are the youngest of three boys in their families. Wrong-o! It's another barely-4-year-old who is the first child in his family. And my son is desperate to invite him over to play. "Over my dead body" is a tempting phrase but perhaps unwise given the playthings of choice.

Anyway, I would be fretting differently but not less, most likely, if I had girls: check out AlphaMom and her post on the latest must-have dollhouse, at least in the world of the advertisers. Made me laugh and want to cry at the same time. At least my Barbie airplane provided an exciting career for Barbie. But maybe that's what poisoned my brain against this stay-at-home-mom thing! Pesky feminists, agitating for self-actualization.

1 comment:

Lilian said...

Thank you so much for your comment to my latest post, you were the first, and although I'm always thankful for any comments I get, I'm particularly thankful for yours.

This post resonates with me since I have been successfully sheltering my sons from the knowledge of guns and shooting. I think my 5 year old only used his hand to "shoot" a couple of times, but he doesn't really do it. I think he does know about the existence of guns but none of his friends plays with them really. Now he started school though, so maybe that'll change. Good thing it's a tiny school! :)

(I haven't read the post you link to, but I will now) and I will also look around your blog too ;)