The post below I originally wrote and posted last September before the blogs went down for re-vamping.  I wanted to put it back on here for those of you that may not have had the chance to read it so that my next post would make sense

We have all seen phases that are children go through and wonder how long they will last.  Sometimes it seems the harder you try to get them out of a phase the worse it gets.  This happened with us with my middle son this last winter.  It was Christmas Eve when we decided to do a family movie night with a Christmas movie before bed.  The movie choice was “A Christmas Story” where little Ralphie wants a Red Ryder BB gun.  My husband and I have watched the movie many times and think it is a Christmas classic.  Little did we know the effect it would have on my 4 year old.  He saw the desire that little Ralphie had for that Red Ryder BB gun and decided he wanted one too.

I started out by telling him in a joking way that he would “shoot his eye out”.  He assured me he wouldn’t.  I told him he wasn’t old enough and that when he was older he could take a gun safety class if he was responsible.  He was quick to assure me that he was responsible now.  The more we tried to divert his desire the worse it got.  He found my older son’s plastic Fisher Price fishing pole and started walking around pretending it was his Red Ryder.  I have to admit that it was kind of cute to see him with it lined up on his shoulder and to hear him go “Now Black Bart you get yars!” just like little Ralphie.

So right about now some of you might be wondering what the problem was.  My concern came from a couple of years before.  One day oldest son and another child at preschool got put in time out for pretending to build Lego guns.  I have to preface this by saying that at that point my oldest son had never even played with a toy gun.  There were no toy guns in our house and he had not been watching any movies or TV programs with guns.  This to me truly demonstrates that boys will be boys.  I don’t think it was/is any more complicated than that.  However, because of the times we live in, talk of guns at school is not tolerated.  Even in 4 year olds who are just pretending.  It seems that the days of playing cowboys and Indians are over.  This makes it so hard as a parent .  My boys are not encouraged and in fact discouraged from violence towards themselves and others, but what is the harm in them building a gun out of Lego or learning that when they are older and if they are responsible they can learn to shoot?

By the time spring rolled around my middle son was still stuck in this phase wanting a toy gun and the harder we tried to divert his interest, the more it grew.  This is when I made the decision to let him get a toy one with his money he saved.  I instructed him that he could not shoot it at other kids/people and the dog.  He could pretend he was target shooting in the back yard.  Then as the end of the school year rolled around, the kids had water day at school and were encouraged to bring squirt guns.  How confusing is that?  You are told your child can not pretend to be building guns, talk about guns or play any games that involve guns at school, but they can bring squirt guns to water day?  As the summer got hotter and their grandparents were here to visit, the decision was made that our oldest two boys could have the super soaker water gun they so desired.  Their super soakers were quite the present from their Nana!  They had their fun soaking each other in the heat in the back yard and you know what?  They weren’t becoming violent towards each other and gradually the talk of a Red Ryder was decreasing.

Then, a few weeks ago, my 4 year old watched Pinnochio and it was like a switch flipped.  Do you know what his new thing is?  String puppets!  Just in time for school starting!  It couldn’t have worked out any better.  On our last trip to the mountains he found a log that he said he wanted to carve into Pinnochio (like Gepetto) and that he had to make sure he carved his heart too.  So now he is either in the back yard finding pieces of wood he can turn into a string puppet or figuring out how he can tie strings onto action figures and pretend that they are his puppets.  He has even been showing his teacher how good he is at drawing string puppets.  It will be interesting to see how long this phase lasts and fortunately for me, I won’t have to try and rush this phase along.  Right now the big question is if Santa’s elves know how to make a string puppet!