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Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers
Do you ask about guns in the house before a playdate?
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Anonymous
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A gun in a household is typically much less accessible than alcohol, knives, power tools, household cleaners, and meds. I hate guns, would never own one, and don't like that people have them in their homes. But most gun owners keep them way out of the way of children and educate their children about dangers.
It's just ironic that there are equally as lethal items in any household that we take no notice to. |
Anonymous
| If you don't trust the person enough to reason that they would store the gun safely if they did have one, why are you letting your child play there? If you need to go down that road with everyone, why not type up a checklist including things like where they store their poisons, their matches, etc.? |
Anonymous
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Sometimes your child's safety is just too important to be undermined by a fear of possible hurt feelings. I know what my kid is like around medicine, knives, and household cleaners. He encounters them every day and I know he knows how to interact with those objects. I can't say the same about guns. I don't want to him to learn the hard way. I don't want to learn the hard way. If a 15 second question can save my child's life, I'm going to ask.
If someone is offended I am asking, I'd probably sever the relationship. If they have unsecured guns, I have a problem with that. If they have secured guns, we have no problem. |
Anonymous
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My kids aren't old enough for drop off playdates yet, but my oldest will be there soon. I am so glad to see this thread. NEVER would have thought to ask about it - but seriously, a great question (along with the pool question). Helicopter/shmelicopter parent - don't care if that's how I'm perceived - I am very laid back in many areas, but feel due diligence in others is beneficial.
And pp regarding the checklist - not a bad idea....I think I'm going to do that...have my own personal checklist of things to discuss with the parents/feel secure about before allowing my child to have an unsupervised (by me) visit. Awesome - thanks for the advice! |
Anonymous
Sheesh. I ask about swimming pools too. We would always ask. We only recently found out that grandpa keeps a loaded gun in the house. Never would have thought to ask him. We didn't say anything, but DCs are not going to stay at grandpa w/o one of us there --- i.e. we don't run out for groceries w/o the kids when visiting. Unlocked loaded gun around kids is just mega stupid. |
Anonymous
| Most people don't have hidden swimming pools in their bedrooms. I am thinking people will generally know if someone has a pool, seems like a normal thing for the parent to visit before dropping off child house unseen, yes? |
Anonymous
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Number of child being kidnapped by a stranger every year 150, but as a nation we are insanely worried about that.
http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/documents/nismart2_nonfamily.pdf Worry about accidental injury or death from a gun seems like a much better thing to worry about. |
Anonymous
Seems you are fooling yourself if you think your kid is okay around medicine, knives, and household cleaners. All it takes is someone else's kid coming to your house and exerting a little peer pressure. |