boys, blood, and war

"Penny Gaines" wrote in message
...

Do all boys go through this stage?

It may not just be boys. Rose definitely went through a Viking stage,
where she ran around the house in a plastic breastplate and helmet. She
removed the horns because they weren't historically authentic. The sword
was used, contrary to household rules, to settle disputes between
siblings, and had to be put away.

She has always been into Roman army stuff too. I always thought it was odd
to have a girl interested in Roman armor, armaments, and battle tactics.
To show her flexibility, she was Boudicca (who fought the Romans) for
Halloween in 2002 -- see he
http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/Halloween02.html, with her armor and
"fur" leggings and arm bands.

Now she's a bit older, and she's interested in World War II. She finished
Stephan Ambrose's book, "Citizen Soldier" recently. She also has really
enjoyed the Lord of Rings (first in book form, and now all the movies) and
all its swordplay.

Boys seem to be more interested, though, in blood and guts and destruction
for their own sake. Rose, I don't think, has that sort of interest. She's
interested in how cool a sword looks, not whether or not it is jammed
through someone's viscera.

Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky

Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm

New CD coming out this month! See: http://www.tiferet.net

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Claire Petersky wrote in message oo.com...
"Penny Gaines" wrote in message
...

Do all boys go through this stage?

It may not just be boys. Rose definitely went through a Viking stage,
where she ran around the house in a plastic breastplate and helmet.

My daughter dressed up as Arwen one Halloween and between houses (we
go out, come home, go out again, it's a close-knit neighborhood) she
grabbed a plastic sword and did "Arwen the Elven Warrior Princess."
(She's not much into authenticity yet as she's only 5.) She liked the
combination of princess dress-up and armaments. She and the neighbor
boys - one of which is a good 7 years OLDER than she - did some sword
fighting on the front porch. I wish I'd photographed it. She was
swinging a sword like she was born in the First Age.

Boys seem to be more interested, though, in blood and guts and destruction
for their own sake.

My oldest boy has always been interested in weapons, destruction, car
crashes and the like. At first it bothered me. But now that he's 8 and
can read, he fleshes out his interest with non-fiction books about the
Titanic, pirates, race cars, etc. So though sometimes he just seems
interested in violence for its own sake, occasionally he learns
something. Shhhh...don't tell him. ;-)

My oldest also is just *hooked* on his computer game, "Need For Speed"
One of his favorite things to do is to be the "bad guy" and run from
the "police" in the game. I was being an intervening parent one day
and I asked him about it. He rolled his eyes at me and said: "It's a
*game* mom. I'm not a bad guy in real life!" Put me in my place! (From
this game he has learned a lot about cars and wants to build them when
he grows up. A future engineer, perhaps?)

- Bev

It's not all boys. Henry's not only not interested in the blood & guts thing,
he seems to be revolted by it. He won't even come in the same room with me
when I'm watching "Law and Order," "CSI" or "ER."

It's not that he minds violence or personal injury -- he and his dad love to
wrestle and things get pretty intense when they do that -- it's not uncommon
for someone to inadvertently draw blood, and when that happens Henry is not at
all phased.

They just finished studying the civil war in class and he couldn't have cared
less.

Just one more data point...

-Dawn
Mom to Henry, 11

"Claire Petersky" wrote in message
o.com...
Boys seem to be more interested, though, in blood and guts and destruction
for their own sake. Rose, I don't think, has that sort of interest. She's
interested in how cool a sword looks, not whether or not it is jammed
through someone's viscera.


I get that same reaction with DS. He is interested in the weapon, how it
works, how it looks, but not so much in what happens when it is used on
people except that he wins his Age of Empires scenario. I think, for him,
the weapons are very removed from the reality.

-Aula
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