Supplying the world with superheroes, princes and knights

“Aaaarrrggghhh!!! I don’t know anything about boys!!!”

That was the first response I received as I was congratulating a girlfriend who was expecting a baby boy. It was not the first time I had heard this phrase from first time expectant mums of boys.

“What is it like having a boy???”, they ask as they clutch at me in mild panic.

My usual response: “I love it! Boys are just so much fun!”

Now please don’t get me wrong. I have both a boy and a girl. And I love them both to bits. My baby girl is the quirkiest, funniest little person in the world. But for this post I just want to put in a word out for the boys.

And what is one everyday fun thing about having boys around?

This.

#littlesuperhero

Plus they’ll train up a whole team of heroes to stand together with them. Or at least one really awesome little sidekick.

#bigbrothersarethebest

Masked superheroes. Sword fighting warriors. Soldiers on horses. Knights in shining armour. Pirates. Robots. Firefighters. Police officers. Astronauts in space. Jungle explorers. Oh the possibilities!

As little girls we might have grown up playing pretending to be princesses and damsels. And every princess dreams of finding her prince someday. So somebody has to supply them. I guess it’s our job as mums of these young princes to mould them into the best superheroes and knights in shining armour that the best princesses in the world deserve to have.

We are the stewards of the future superheroes of our world.

So believe me when I tell you: #boysareawesome

Video Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB6yRyjt05c

 

P.S. Some closing thoughts on superhero and weapon play…

Some people think that if you let a child engage in gun or other weapon play, the child will hurt or kill others or grow up to be a violent person. There is no evidence to support this belief. Play with weapons and superhero play is pretend play. It is little different to pretending that sand is a rich chocolate cake or that there are tooth fairies and Easter bunnies. Rich imaginative play does not produce violence. Engaging in such play is an antidote to violence and not a cause of it. Even children as young as two years can distinguish between what is real and what is make believe or not real. Children can drop dolls on their heads and dangle dolls by the arm and not worry because they know dolls are not real babies; and teachers don’t ban dolls from the early childhood programme. When children are shooting each other as part of their play they don’t actually believe they are hurting each other – they know they get up after being shot. It is not necessary to stop a child’s play when a child knows that what they are doing is playing; it’s not a real situation and no one is actually getting hurt.

>> Read more: http://www.myece.org.nz/activities-for-childhood-learning/254-superhero-play-weapon-gun