37. Many parents do not
allow their children to play with toy guns. In your opinion, is this a wise
decision? Explain what you think parents should do about toy guns and why.
38. In one of his most
famous lines, Shakespeare’s Hamlet says, “I must be cruel, only to be kind.”
Describe a time when you, too, had to be cruel to be kind.
As children develop and age, they pass through several
developmental milestones. These hallmarks indicate their progression through
the capacity to differentiate fantasy from reality. As we age, we become
capable recognizers of these realms, and know when a dream is a dream, and
reality can speak for itself. Young children, until roughly the age of 6 can
barely tell the difference between what they think is real and what is real. As toddlers play, they use
make-believe to make reality of their dreams; this often manifests as playing
house with a cardboard box, a car race, a jenga stack, or even a lego world.
Imagination is a powerful tool to empower young minds, but when youngsters can’t
differentiate between the real and fantasy, the wrong toys can invite
disastrous behaviour. Toy weapons like plastic axes, swords, or even toy guns
bring about in children the question of their function in real life and enable
impulsive drives to dictate the use of these toys. This is fundamentally why toys
that have violent implications are not suitable for young children.
Though we like to see children as innocent, the impulsive
nature of youth is not a question of purity, but rather a question of problem
solving. Young children who possess a toy such as a plastic axe or sword will
inevitably seek out its parallel in reality; they may even model themselves
after the behaviour of others who wield such weapons. Seeing how adults wield
weapons of war while possessing a toy with such a likeness effectively teaches
children at a young age how to be violent.
There is a time and a place to learn what guns and weapons
are, but this must be at a time when the subject can process the significance
and responsibility that comes with this. Consider the example of the youth who
becomes infuriated when facing a loss. At a young age, managing anger is
difficult, and it’s not unusual for children to lose their temper at a loss. As
we age, we learn to manage our anger and pursue self-control to keep ourselves
from punching a wall or inflicting harm. This state of mind, though common in
young children, also means they are not ready to connect violent fantasies with
coping mechanisms for failure. Empowering children with more violent
expressions to manage anger is nothing but an invitation for disaster.
Though it is said that violence begets violence, it is
ultimately our ability to regulate our thinking that determines how our perception
of violence and its propagation unfolds. Toys that suggest a violent use invite
children to explore them and likely misuse them. As children develop they
eventually will have the means to understand the gravitas of what these items
represent, but until they reach that point its extremely unlikely that they
will be misused. When faced with frustration and failure, providing children more tools to violently express
themselves is a mistake. It seems neglectful to keep certain toys from
children, but such a statement must be met with the acknowledgement that
parents sometimes must be cruel to be
kind.
