There is something seriously wrong with my parenting. I'm pretty inconsistent, for one thing. One day it's OK to do something, the next it's not. I waver between no pretend gun play and hey, go for it, just don't point the damn thing at me. Some video games are fine, but then I start seeing behavior I'm not so happy with and I veto all things that are in any way violent. I try to do the right thing, but sometimes I'm so unsure what the right thing is, I get stuck.
So the other day we're watching The Muppet Show (don't ya just love Netflix??), and Boy Wonder tells me he's freaked out. I ask why, and he says that a monster just swallowed a lady whole and it scared him. So I rewind to see what he's talking about, and it's a skit in which Miss Piggy gets swallowed by one of the big monsters. I found it totally hilarious, BW was upset by it...the child who is perfectly happy to play war and gun games was scared when Miss Piggy got munched. Do you see the problem here?
So we're back to more closely monitoring what BW watches and plays. He's seven, I'd like him to be free of scary things right now - guns and wars and shooting people should be scary, right? Or are those things that kids just naturally play? Cowboys and Indians? War? Cops and Robbers? (My cousin the cop just loves that one, let me tell you.) Ugh. Why can't it be all innocent and sweet now? There's plenty of time for all the ugliness in the world later. Things should be shiny and happy when they're young, right?
Funny how a R.E.M. video on VH1 got me started down this little path - revisiting parenting decisions, worrying about pretend play and video game time....Gotta love it.
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