How To Encourage Peace

My husband and teenage daughter called me from the store to tell me that they had found the perfect toy for my three-year old.

Let me explain something first. This three-year old is the boy that has not watched anything but Dora the Explorer, Blues Clues, Barney and Bob the Builder on television. Our cable connected television is in a loft above the living room, accessible by only a steep ladder.

We tried watching Zathura with him, which he loved, but forever after has added the phrase "the robots goin' to get me" to his late night fears.

Recently, he has started holding doors open for me as I carry the baby to the car.

At night, he asks me to lie down beside him and "keep me sabe (safe)."

Birthday time came. He got a new bike, a train set, and the gift that my husband and daughter bought--an army set with play guns and grenades.

I didn't say a word, good or bad. He just looked at those guns and grenades and moved on to the other toys. My daughter and husband really tried to teach him to play with them. I really tried to be neutral. I did tell him, however, to never "pow pow" his mommy or the baby.

Of course, I never did play the gun game. I just was not ready to explain the concept of war and bloodshed to my little boy. He will know soon enough.

I think kids are pretty perceptive and influenced by what their moms don't say. Several months later, those guns are now in the garage, having been dumped on the floor too many times in search of other toys and left.

He also started a new daycare this Fall. He has been going there several weeks now and, as he was falling asleep tonight, confessed with a smile: "I like to play pow pow."