Reply #120: When I had a 3-year-old, I'd have said, No.

[Igel]

Now that I have a 5-year-old, I'd have to say, "Been there, done that."

Seriously. I've watched the other 5-year-olds play. Violence? Well, not enough to actually land anybody in the hospital. My kid cringers. But virtual violence is okay.

We had the same experience that my SIL had. No guns, no cartoons with guns, no play guns. However, somewhere along the line between age 3 and 4 he got the idea. No gun? Fine: Hold up a stick and say "bang!" Or the tube from a roll of paper towels. Or the plastic pole-like thing that held his streamer. Whatever. Perhaps he got it from another kid. Perhaps a cartoon slipped past the mommy&daddy filter (TM). Who knows?

Now it's Doctor Who and Stargate Atlantis (on DVD, of course). He wasn't that interested in the second Transformers movie.

Nonetheless, he was near tears when a classmate said that she stepped on a toad to kill it. And the worm that ate the first of the little squashes growing in the garden last week? No, I wasn't allowed to kill it--I had to find another small squash to feed it, and now it's quietly pupating in the den so he can watch it.

No, I can't kill a bug, he's too sensitive for that. But he can watch the Stargate Atlantis team kill off dozens and dozens of Wraith. He can clearly discriminate between real and fictional violence. I think.