[Night Hides Not]

Open memo to Zsofia: you should be concerned about your son if he starts playing with Barbie dolls. GI Joe? No problem.

I've raised two sons, now 12 & 25. Our closets and garage have dozens of toy guns. My 4 YO grandson loves playing with them, as well as playing Angry Birds, watching Paw Patrol ("Chase is on the case!"), and he just finished up his first season of T-ball.

[MrB]

What I see described is not “pretend violence” so much as it is a boy acting in his role of protecting the weak from bad guys.

Bad guys will use violence, so a normal boy is wired to know that he’ll have to respond in kind.

We saw this in “Christmas Story” with Ralphie’s fantasy of protecting the family from Black Bart’s gang.