Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Guns, swords and beheadings

I have a 4 year old boy. He's very much into superheros, star wars and transformers. He is often handing out weapons to various family members in order to have a 'family battle'. Hope gets in on the action by holding out a sword and giggles every time someone hits it softly. I'm trying to figure out where the 'line' is in the midst of all of this. He one time told me that he cut my head off with his sword...um, no, not in my house. But where is the line? How much violence in playtime is too much? His idea of killing someone is that they're asleep. And they always come back to life. And interestingly, this morning, he related them coming back to life because they're in heaven. Ahh, the blurred lines of theology and imagination.

I'd love your thoughts and ideas!

1 comment:

Kelly said...

I caught my non-gun playing girls in the following conversation yesterday:

A: Jenna, I'm going to kill you!
J: Ok! (as if she wanted it!)
A: Then you can come back to life in 3 days after you hang on a cross for a while, ok?

violence is all around us, and as old as the Fall. I think it's a natural part of play for most kids, unless it gets out of control or makes others uncomfortable maybe? i don't know..you figure it out and let me know when Josh is 4, k?