Posted on regular board too...I am LIVID!!

I am so pi$$ed beyond words I cannot even think straight. My son is 4 and I have NEVER allowed guns. No guns, no knives. Everyone in my family knows that I don't allow them. My older brother who I don't get along with all that well just sent my son's Christmas present to my mom's. We go over for him to open it... 2 guns--a machine gun and a handgun. Grenades and a huge plastic knife. WTF? I am so mad while he is opening it and even madder now. My brother & I have our moments and don't really get along so my mother thinks that I am so upset about this blatant disregard to what I allow because of our relationship. She turns it into a whole big issue of "I'll send it back, never mind. Jordan you can't have it." I am about to f'in scream. My son, of course, wants to keep his presents and I said "he can keep them for now." She knows I am going to make them disappear in a week so she tries to take them out of Jordan's hand. I was even more pi$$ed then and called her on it. So now, I'm the biotch that won't let her kid have his Christmas presents from his poor Uncle because I don't like him. Never mind that everyone knows the rules...NO GUNS, NO KNIVES!!!

As Jordan's parent, you have EVERY right to decide what he can and can't have. Brother and Mother sound like they are trying to manipulate your views. Hold firm. Jordan needs to know that what Mommy says, goes! No one else's opinion matters. Count the days until your move to Florida! Better days are coming! Cindy

Thanks Cindy!

The way I see it??? He is your child and what you say goes. You are, after all, the mom.

Thanks Beth! I just end up looking by the bad guy which sucks!!!

Sounds like your brother is trying to push your buttons. Shame on him! I too did not want my boys to have any guns of any kind. I know exactly how you feel! But I swear they would turn a pencil or a cookie into a gun! They would bite a cookie into the shape of a gun and then pretend to shoot it. I punished them over the gun thing. Somewhere along the way, I relaxed a bit. First it was a rubber band gun, then squirt guns. Then came the Super soakers (which are really fake AK47's). Then they wanted air soft guns now that they are older (they shoot little colored pellets). I let my 14 year old get one. He shoots cans off the back fence. My kids are really very well balanced and have absolutely no interest in real guns. They are not violent. However, I do think it is YOUR decision and nobody elses. I have a husband who was much more relaxed about it than me, and they all wore me down! If you do send them back, maybe you can explain to J why you feel the way you do, and offer to get him something he really likes. Isn't parenting fun????

I think as your children get older it is worth re-visiting the topic. I just don't think a 4-year old doesn't need a machine gun so he can "play Army." At this point, in his mind, this makes him believe that soldiers walk around all day, with huge guns shooting anyone and everything. Then there is the blatant disregard and disrespect of me personal over my No guns/No knives rule. Nobody said Parenting was easy!!

You are absolutely right Tonya. I hear ya...

Brothers can be a pain in the butt sometimes.

You ain't lying!!