I’m a peace-loving sort of person. There are 80s-era photos of me wearing CND badges and Doc Martens to prove it.
So I've tried to raise Flea in a non-violent environment. Our mantra is: "We don't hit. We use our words."
That applies to her and to me. Well, apart from that time Flea was really, really annoying so I flicked her nose. So, at four, Flea's never had a fight, never hit anyone, never even pulled hair. I know, right? TOP NOTCH parenting.
Flea and I were lying on her bed last night after reading her story, when she told me she’d played the most BRILLIANT game at school today with her friend Max. “Oh, that’s cool, what did you play?”
Flea’s eyes were sparkling, and she said, “The magic ingredients game. It's my favourite game to play, in fact.”
In my head, this sounded like a nice cooking game. It's not.
“Yes, you have to put your fingers like this [Flea makes a gun shape] and then you shoot the Magic Man who is standing on the roof of the school. Then he is dead, and he falls down the drainpipe into the water at the bottom and so we drop in magic ingredients.”
Not exactly what I was expecting. “Gosh, do the magic ingredients make him better?” I say, clutching at straws.
“No,” she says, looking at me like I’m a moron. “We put in magic apples and magic bananas and magic vitamins of course and they all make the magic man’s body smell gross, and then you smell it.”
So basically, four years of pacifism and she's playing snipers. Nice.
Love it 🙂
Snipers – criks, and I was worried about cowboys and indians.
😉 x
Aha, very familiar, everything is about getting deaded. We have had to hide the lightsabers at home!!
This makes me laugh alot – Flea has such a vivid imagination! My sister has always been very strict about her kids not playing with guns/light sabres. They come to my house and what are the first toys they reach for?
Love it. Used to teach little boys, and they would make guns out of ANYTHING they could find in the classroom… pencils, lego, you name it.
You should see the tops of our kitchen cabinets, loads of ‘guns’ there and sticks, hidden from my boys to make sure they dont ‘deaded’ people. One day I shall have to take them all down. x
It’s weird isn’t it – no gun, so she uses her fingers. Kid instinct, I guess 😉
she’ll be wanting to watch The Wire next…. reading this though, made me realise my girls (apart from the occassional thump with each other) have never been in a fight either. Well, not if bitten fingers and pulled hair doesn’t count. Mmmm. They just saw out cats have a massive cat fight and didn’t enjoy it…. that might keep them apart for a week or two!
Well, i guess it’s nature over nurture on that one!
my, that sounds like a much more complex game than we ever used to play. well, ok most of ours involved us being horses, but still… am very impressed at the imagination, especially the impressive title that would make teachers and playground monitors leave them alone to play once they were told it. Very well done, top marks that girl!
Don’t you just love it when they go to school and pick up other peoples parenting?!!