Bang bang! I shot you!

In the excellent Terminator 2, the philosopher of our age, John Connor, realises it is in our nature to destroy each other as he watches two younger boys playing with toy guns. I was reminded of the scene when I was in a toy store with my youngest the other day. Looking around the "boys" toys (the gender stereotype on toys is another discussion) I realised how many were guns, swords, fighting robots etc.

Now I well aware of the parental philosophy of refuse to buy your children toy guns and they will just use sticks anyway, I for one have bought toy lightsabres as they are actually safer than the alternative that were being used (marble run tubes) but why or how do we teach our children to play this way?
Now I'm not trying to start a moral debate, I'm more just intellectually interested in why we do this. As a parent I tell my children violence is bad, but then we watch Ninja and Superhero cartoons. The current trend of Superhero films include characters that try to resolve issues without guns, but then these are fantasy films. In real life there obviously is a need for some firearms, who should have them is a difficult question.The gun debate is a long and detailed discussion not for this blogger to delve into.

So, when I wargame, and these days my sons are more interested in what I do, how do I describe it to them? I once heard of a manager in a certain toy soldier retail company banning the word "dead" and instead staff were asked to use the word "casualty". (I'm not sure how true this was.) Should I be treading this carefully? I think there is a definite need to differentiate between fantasy and real life. I explain to my son that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can do what they do because they are professionally trained to a high level and also because they are not real. Real life is more dangerous.

Obviously historical wargaming does have some educational merit and older children should learn about war. Otherwise, as a wiser man than I said, we are doomed to repeat it. So with that in mind should one choose one over the other for the younger minds?

I'm pretty sure that young minds are cleverer than we sometimes give credit. They understand the distinction between a game and real life. Maybe playing at War is some deep down natural survival instinct. I for one have never really had a love of violence in real life, but give me a bag of dice and a table of miniatures and I will turn into a bloodthirsty general.