OK I have more thoughts on this.
Many people here have said 'you can’t force your tastes on your kids' etc – so why the fuck is it considered perfectly alright to stop your children from having toy guns and soldiers etc? My brother went to buy some toy soldiers for a friend’s son recently and was told there was no call for them any more as people didn’t approve.

Why is pretending to being a heroic professional soldier in defence of your country a bad thing, whereas playing at being a tiara-sporting vacuous twat who does sod all for anyone acceptable?
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 10:54, 7 replies, latest was 15 years ago)

Man it's like parents don't all think the same way
someone should look into that, that's going to cause loads of problems.
(PsychoChomp, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 10:57, Reply)

I wouldn't say Darth is THAT vacuous.

( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 10:58, Reply)

POTD

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:00, Reply)

My brothers and sisters and I were never allowed to play with toy guns/soldiers or Barbie dolls.
:(
(Poppet some assembly required., Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:00, Reply)

To be fair, I wouldn't allow my hypothetical sons to play with Barbie dolls....

(LongJohnBaldry, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:10, Reply)

well they'd already be a bit limp-wristed if they were your sons.
it's funny because I'm insinuating your bumderness would be passed on to your hypothetical sons.
(Poppet some assembly required., Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:16, Reply)

I wouldn't rule it out - there has been some suggestion that a tendency toward homosexual behaviour is heritable
Although I use the word "hypothetical" with good reason as that whole filthy process would involve fornication with something female.
(LongJohnBaldry, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:20, Reply)

I have no problems with kids playing with toy guns or soldiers
I reckon a vocal minority of parents suddenly think they're experts as soon as they pop a sprog out. They might read some equally opinionated mother's magazine article about 'violent or competitive' activities leading to the raising of sociopaths, and suddenly little Jacob Edward Bieber Smith finds himself unable to play with anything more dangerous than a Fair Trade carbon neutral hula hoop.
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:00, Reply)

My brother and I had almost exclusively military toys
in fucking enormous quantities and we turned out alr...err, hang on.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:02, Reply)

I had cars, plastic swords
Bow and arrow sets and a frickin' castle. My Dad and I 'stormed' Kenilworth castle once, hence it's a ruin now.
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:03, Reply)

We had toy soldiers in their multiple thousands and had long running campaign games.
Toy guns, toy swords, Airfix tanks and planes, book after book of military guides to tanks etc, Commando and Warlord comics......
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:08, Reply)

I had books on medieval warfare
My favourite book pretty much cataloged all weapons from the Bronze Age up to the Vietnam war. It also showed how to make punji pits and pendulum traps, along with other things I recreated in the neighbouring orchard.
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:11, Reply)

If you haven't already watch Deadliest Warrior on Bravo.

( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:12, Reply)

Can't get Bravo, or any tv signal at all
But have seen a couple, looked cool.
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:14, Reply)

They had the Viet Kong versus the SS or something
and the Kongs special weapon was the Punji Pit.
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:16, Reply)

That sounds like my kind of book.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:13, Reply)

I might still have it at my parents' house
I want to read it now.
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:14, Reply)

Oh I've 'had it at your parents house' lots of times.
She's quite the filthy old minx, your ma.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:16, Reply)

Did you and Vipros Eiffel Tower her?

( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:18, Reply)

Me, Vipros and your dad did things to your mum
that you probably see in your line of work all the time, but I for one would never have believed anatomically possible if I hadn't seen it first hand.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:24, Reply)

Considering how fat my Dad is
I'm surprised you could get the angles to work.
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:25, Reply)

He was on 'teabag duty'

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:31, Reply)

It's because violence towards other people is bad
but emulating unreasonably proportioned plastic in the image of anthropomorphised creatures, originally perpetrated for grooming purposes by a child abuser ALLEGEDLY, is fine. After all, we all know how violent nature isn't.

I hope this explains things for you.
( Kroney, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:01, Reply)

Great, thanks.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:06, Reply)

Because ultimately everyone is scared of being judged yet most people
are too fucking scared to admit they don't know the rules and just plod along being a sheep. No one thinks anymore.
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:04, Reply)

It's an interesting dichotomy
It's easier to condemn kids playing with toy guns as guns are used to kill living things and therefore represent violence, and we don't want our beloved progeny to grow up to be murderous thugs (generally). It's much harder to condemn tiara-sporting vacuous twats as they are, at least on the surface, harmless. This is also a much more difficult distinction to explain to a child.

And whilst people on here have a good point in saying "you can't force your tastes on your kids," I think it would be fairer to say "you ideally shouldn't." Because we all do it, however unwillingly.
(LongJohnBaldry, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:08, Reply)

Speak for yourself, pinko

( Kroney, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:12, Reply)

If I think my daughter's toys are vulgar plastic shite I will (and do) say so.
How else are you supposed to learn taste? It's no different from learning spelling etc to my mind. My parents were as merciless in their criticism of vulgarity as they were of poor spelling and grammar and it's made me the supercilious snob I am today. I am eternally grateful to them for this.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:12, Reply)

She is your daughter and as such deserves your input. (After all, you don't want her to turn into her mother...)
To say "they fuck you up, your mum and dad," is perhaps a rather cynical view of an important truth, which is that you will play an important role in shaping her personality. I'm quite glad of the way my own parents shaped me - sure, I've got my own set of problems and neuroses _{and massively benderish tendencies}, but they could have done a lot worse than they did. Just remember, she's your daughter, and it's your duty to fuck her up until she's the person you want her to be. After all, every parent wants to be proud of their child, and it would be much harder to be proud of a vacuous, tiara-sporting commoner.
(LongJohnBaldry, Wed 12 Jan 2011, 11:18, Reply)