Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Play/toy weapons

[Scott Roser (sroser86]

I appreciate how difficult it can be to prevent kids from playing with toy
guns. My mom tried to do it with her three sons, but we just made our own
weapons from sticks and scrap lumber. I also played quite a few violent
video games as a teenager. My obsession with violence and war led me to
join the military and I ended up serving in Iraq. Long story short, the war
was horrible and turned me into a liberal hippie pacifist. Now that I am a
parent to three boys of my own, I have a zero tolerance policy for toy guns
or violent video games. The myth of redemptive violence is everywhere in
our culture and I think co housing should be a place where we can teach our
kids to live by a different narrative.  Especially with boys, we need to
get creative in diverting their imagination into other interests and
activities.