I got a Wii for Mother’s Day. Not a spa day. Not flowers. I DID get chocolate.
Chocolate and a Wii.
Exactly what I wanted.
While we have been playing tennis and driving Mario around goofy worlds and generally having a blast as a family, one game stopped me in my tracks.
Skeet Shooting.
Stupid. I know.
I played duck hunt as a kid. I remember the “X”s over the dead duck’s eyes. I think there was a dog. He was cute.
But I have issues with my kids shooting and playing with guns for ‘fun.’
It’s one of the things my husband and I really don’t agree on. Well, we agree to a degree, but not entirely. He’s fine with skeet shooting. Didn’t even blink when I said ‘should we let the 5-year old skeet shoot on Wii?’
Thoughts in my head included -is it only skeet? Will he then want to shoot everything? Do I have to talk (again) about shooting and guns and safety and danger…because I am tired and I really don’t know if I have the energy RIGHT NOW to do this simply because I’m letting him play on the Wii.
Let it be know, so you are not confused and can yell at my hippie, liberal, California ass properly : I hate guns.
I hate them.
I am not from a family that hunts. I am not from a family that had a gun at home. I am not a fan.
I have had a gun held to my head.
I. Hate. Guns.
However (and this is a big however) my husband is from a family that hunts. He has attempted to convince me that shooting out back with Grandpa is an entirely acceptable past-time when we take the kids to visit the in-laws.
As you can imagine, this makes me not want to take the kids to visit the in-laws. Ever.
Of course I am not insane (mostly) and will compromise on some basic things. I’ve grilled my father-in-law as to the location and security of every gun he owns or every gun that is anywhere within 1 mile of my children.
I’ve conceded that I can see the benefit of teaching the children (I say that on purpose, because only my son is ever discussed when ‘shooting’ comes up and I think both kids need to be included) gun safety.
I have agreed that when it is age appropriate that whole ‘grandpa can teach you about guns’ thing can occur.
Then I mutter under my breath about how wrong it all seems to give a kid a gun, even if I agree education is necessary.
I’ve never allowed toy guns at home. NOT because I’m some crazy lunatic who thinks my kids will grow up violent having played with a toy gun-but because I know full well my kids will figure out guns and what they do in their own time. I am not going to speed up this process and encourage the ‘let’s run around and pretend to kill eachother’ game.
My son already turns sticks into guns. My son already talks about guns and shooting bad guys. He got there entirely on his own having never had a toy gun at home. Why would I have voluntarily given him one at 2 or 3-years old to encourage or speed up the process?
Which brings me back to the Wii.
In the end, we shot some skeet with our controllers. And my son took way too much pride in ‘accidentally’ nailing a duck.
However, he got very upset when his sister ‘accidentally’ shot a photo of his Mii (or avatar) smiling on one of the discs.
“Mom,” he said. “If that was real I would be dead. And I don’t want to be dead. Let’s play something else.”
Victory. Maybe.
*post title by Lee Stranahan, after we discussed the Wii Skeet issue on Twitter.com
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