Absolutely, kids can distinguish the difference between real violence and fantasy violence. I have to admit, though, that while some edges were blurred (violence was bad, learning swordplay was not) others we kept stark (violence was bad, guns toys are forbidden). We more or less decided that we were more worried about Jazz or Wolf getting accidentally shot at a neighbor's house than we were about one of them(or both, when they were smaller) getting skewered by a longsword.
Interesting distinction. I haven't decided how I feel about toy guns yet since Little T is too young and Special K is uninterested. Why did you decide toy guys were bad?
The practical anxiety of our children being in other peoples' homes with real guns was actually a huge, if not the primary, anxiety. We wanted Jazz & Wolf to steer clear of any situation where real weapons were involved, and while we anticipated some limit-crossing, it happened with toys and not the real thing.
There's also a political piece to this; we're very anti-militarization and generally nonviolent (albeit not pacifists), so while we have no problem with some of the kids' play incorporating violence toward monsters, we did not want war games and the like to accustom them to realistic and modern human-on-human violence.
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We more or less decided that we were more worried about Jazz or Wolf getting accidentally shot at a neighbor's house than we were about one of them(or both, when they were smaller) getting skewered by a longsword.
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There's also a political piece to this; we're very anti-militarization and generally nonviolent (albeit not pacifists), so while we have no problem with some of the kids' play incorporating violence toward monsters, we did not want war games and the like to accustom them to realistic and modern human-on-human violence.
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