Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Calling on all opinionated people

To buy or not to buy is the question...
As you all know Christmas is coming and it is time to start thinking about what to buy for the kids. Zander as of late keeps making the comment that all our toys are Baby toys! I feel bad for the little guy because he is right most of our toys are for the 18-3 years old age group. Zander hasn't had a birthday since Dec so he has not gotten any new toys since last Dec. We only buy new toys for Christmas and Birthday. So back to the main point of this post...Zander wants big boy toys. By big boy toys he means, Nerf guns, swords, transformers, light sabers...you get the point. I have always felt like I wouldn't let my boys play with those sorts of toys, however now I am questioning my beliefs. Is there a logical reason why he shouldn't play with those toys? Will these toys make him act any more violent then he already is with the sticks and baseball bats? We went to the Randall's house on Saturday and Zander was in Big Boy Heaven he LOVED playing with the boys toys...every since he has asked,

"Mom can we go play at Sister Randall's house?"

I responded, "No Zander we weren't invited."

He said, "Yes we were MOM when we left she said we can come over anytime."

Zach and I just looked at each other in amazement that he actually was listening to us adults talking and that he was able to put two and two together to come up with that thought! When Zander has the big boy toys he plays with them like crazy and talks about them for weeks and months later.

Okay so back to the question at hand...Should I buy "big boy toys" for Zander or will I be ruining him for life????

Please if you read this post give me your opinion. Not that is matters what others think completely but I am a confused mother and would like to have other fabulous moms help me in my decision..

7 comments:

Aubrey Leong said...

I vote yes...he is a boy. Let him play with boy toys...it will not turn him into a killing machine :)

lindsy said...

Matt is doing the same thing. Our neighbors have 5, 7, and 9-year old boys, and he loves the swords, guns, nerf ... yeah. Me, not so much. I think it is just a boy thing. I think if they're just playing with them, fine, but when Matt starts saying "I'm gonna kill you" then I'm not so fine with it. I'm amazed at how much they all like dressing up and pretending to be whatever. I'm going to put together a "dress up" box (helmet and shield, batman cape/costume, cowboy hat ...) for his birthday maybe. So anyways, I don't know. I guess they're going to grow up whether we want them to or not =)

Abby said...

I was the same at first really I hated it but then Noah turned his toast into a gun one day out of the blue....so We figured that it comes from within and it wouldnt rally do any harm. So we have all of those things, we even had to buy a nerf gun for jeff. They have some much fun shooting picture frames...good luck, either way!!

Abby said...

oh and my kids are obsessed with capes....my mom made last year at christmas...I am sure you can whip one up you are a sewing machine =0

Anonymous said...

You know my opinion! I don't think my boys are that screwed up, do you? To be honest I am more concerned of the influence that that they get from other kids at scool. At least I can somewhat control their playing at home. And yes, Zander can come play whenever he wants to (if you don't mind him playing with our boy toys!)

Christen and Ian said...

I think its not the toys but what they are permitted to do with it. Granted, I shouldn't really say anything, because I dont have kids yet, but in my defense, I do have brothers :) The rules in my house were such that the toys were there, and they played with them, but you "dont point guns at people- even fake guns." The little rules like that kept the underlying emotions at playtime away from the violence and more at the "kid" level. Thats my 2 cents!!

AnnaMarie said...

We didn't ever really have guns and swords when we were growing up, but if Zander is into them, then I think it's best to decide ahead of time what the rules are. I like cristen's suggestions: don't point them at other people or say anything about killing anyone else. You'll figure it out!