"I waited until after the party was over to take the paintball gun away from Nate. Now my son hates me, my in-laws are saying I "ruined" their gift by "coddling" him, and my husband is trying to convince me to let Nate keep the paintball gun. He says we can keep it in storage and only allow him to use it when we take him to the local paintball course. I don't want a gun of any kind in my home! Please tell me I'm not being unreasonable."
"I don't think you're being unreasonable at all, it's incredibly important for parents of boys to discourage them from becoming fixated on guns. "No guns in the house" is an entirely fair, common-sense rule in a country that can't go a day without a mass shooting."
"Dear Care and Feeding, I do think you should decide whether you want Nate to go paintballing at all, as allowing him to go to the local course regularly may send a mixed message about whether or not it's okay to play with toy guns. Is this something he can do on occasion, or would you rather he never did it at all? Either way, stick to your metaphorical guns on refusing to keep a toy gun in your home. Let your husband and your in-laws know that this is non-negotiable for you, and that you do not intend to raise a child who takes gun play lightly. Your son has likely been having mass shoo"
A twelve-year-old named Nate was taken to a paintball course by grandparents and received a paintball gun for his birthday without parental approval. The mother removed the gun after the party and refuses to keep any gun in the home, prompting anger from the child and the grandparents and disagreement from the husband. The husband proposes storing the gun and permitting supervised use at a paintball course; the mother insists on a strict no-gun policy. The position emphasizes discouraging fixation on guns, treating a no-guns rule as a common-sense safety measure, and communicating the rule to family as non-negotiable.
Read at Slate Magazine
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