Last Child Without a Gun

Have you heard about the book “Last Child in the Woods” by Richard Louv? The book suggests that some of the attention deficit problems many of our children are facing are at least partially caused by a lack of exposure to nature. My son's teachers have kindly suggested that we need all the attention help we can get, so I’ve been trying to encourage unstructured outdoor play. Except now, my kids are not content to stay in my backyard. Some months ago, not long after I started this blog, I wrote about how freaked out I was by the idea of letting my (rather impulsive daredevil) son go “down the hill” to play in the cul-de-sac at the other end of our street where I couldn’t see him. Soon it became clear that what I really feared was a curve in the road that creates a blind spot preventing those going down from seeing oncoming traffic.

We finally reached a compromise and my son agreed to get off and walk his bike where the “blind” area begins on the street.

Soon after we allowed him this freedom, I was relieved to find that he and the neighborhood boys have formed their own little tribe. What’s nice about their tribe is that they are of mixed age. My son is 8 and is among the youngest and the oldest is in his first year of middle school. The tribe goes from house to house. They climb trees, go sledding, play basketball and hide and seek, ride skateboards and raid refrigerators. Today my son announced. “We’re building a clubhouse.”


Great, I thought. What a nice, old-fashioned, wholesome activity. Kinda like the Little Rascal’s He-Man Woman Haters Club. (Except the tribe accepts girls. They even let my daughter, who is better on the Rib-stick than any of them, hang out with them when she wants to.)

Then he said “and then we’re gonna get some BB guns and shoot anyone who comes near it!”

The S. man and I have tried to stick to our guns about not acquiring any weapons as playthings. Still, when we were in New Mexico, and we allowed him to pick out a souvenir, he begged for tomahawks and bow and arrows. In every toystore he goes straight to the plastic tommy guns. And I probably don’t need to tell you what he designed himself from Legos and sticks. (And is it any wonder that the Strong National Museum of Play has inducted the stick into its Toy Hall of Fame?)

Well, what do you think? I think he’ll shoot his eye out!