Weapons Ban

Wingnut and I are firm believers that boys should be allowed to be boys. We've never banned guns or swords or rough play, but we've tried to set reasonable boundaries. Lil' Wingnut is all boy all the time and we are constantly cracking up at his male bravado around other boys. Whenever there is a get together with other boys present, these unsuspecting males become immediate combatants to Lil' Wingnut. This is usually fine, until Lil' Wingnut gets too aggressive and begins to actually hit other people (usually his sisters).

Frustrated with Lil' Wingnut's violent ways, Wingnut decided to ground the lil' guy from weapons: no guns, no swords, no lightsabers. This ban was pretty difficult for our boy, as everything becomes a weapon. Everyday there are new battles to fight and more bad guys to vanquish. How can he do that without any weapons?

While at a family party recently, Lil' Wingnut came up and asked to use the bathroom. He was hiding something behind his back. As I walked him past his father and we entered the house he revealed his hidden object, a stick.

"This is my pistol. I'm hiding it from Dad, " he confessed to me. Little does the dope know, Mama tells Daddy everything. As we finished up in the house and headed back outside, Lil' Wingnut once again hid the stick behind his back.

As he passed his father, I called out, "Hey, Daddy, why don't you ask Lil' Wingnut what he's hiding behind his back!" As he showed it to his dad, he once again confessed it was a gun. Wingnut smiled knowingly and told him it was now his power drill. Lil' Wingnut looked at his dad like he had said something completely insane.

In the end, we had to ban Lil' Wingnut from carrying sticks at all, as they invariably became guns. We thought we had him, until I saw him chasing boys around the yard, shooting them with his finger pistols.