Monday, May 10, 2010

Mother of the year

So Saturday at the supermarket, I'm pushing our shopping cart merrily down the aisles when I see this lady with two kids. One around 3-4 and the other around possibly 5 or 6. The 3 year old is perched on the front of the trolley, not exactly safe, and falls off leading to a cacophony of noise which is par for the course for a three year old mind you.

Still it is as I watch the mother go to pick up the three year old that I catch a glimpse of something that almost makes me jump. No it cant be! Yep, the 6 year old has a knife in his hand. What da??

Ok now granted on closer inspection it wasn't a real knife but it was still a toy knife about 12 inches long and it looked pretty real from a distance and even from close up cause I wasn't the only one that reacted the way I did as I saw a couple of other cats jump when they first noticed the knife. It looked like it might still be able to do some damage even if it was just plastic painted to look real to be honest.

Now from the looks of the fancy handle it looks like it belongs to some sort of role playing game or something. I have no idea what kids games have realistic knives as part of their ensemble but yea it was a toy.

Anyways I pointed it out to my wife who while agreeing with me that it was wrong said its the same thing as kids playing with toy guns. I'm not sure I agree here. While I'm anti-gun for kids toys, I think playing with a plastic colorful clearly not real, water spewing gun in the backyard is a bit different from walking around with a realistic looking 12 inch blade in a crowded supermarket. Does it have the same effect on the kids? Hmm possibly but my feeling isn't that strong so I can be swayed if you think both are equally wrong.

Still I really had to bite my tongue from not saying anything as this chile palance up and down the people supermarket with this fake weapon and I was just thinking what type of mother allows their child to play with such a thing for one and t make it even worse play with it in such a public place. Wow!

4 comments:

Dee said...

mother of the year indeed
there should be fines for things like that

Crankyputz said...

Im with the wife, on the plastic gun....

We all grow up pretending to shoot people, and then find out that you can't do it.....terribly inconsistent messaging.

Abeni said...

Yeah Jdiddy it's pretty much the same as gun play.

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

One of my brothers had a toy knife, very fake, very plastic, the 'blade' would disappear into the handle if you pushed the 'knife' against someone's back or wherever. It was all so innocent then. Hm, we didn't parade up and down with it in public though.