Reply to The "guns in the house" question for playdates

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Nanny here.  I've asked MB/DB what issues they want asked when one of my charges goes on a playdate, and they were completely clueless.  So, I go with my list:

Do you own any weapons?  You do, very nice, can I ask what you have?  Oh, you have a couple knives and a bow and a gun, how do you store those?  Oh, you only lock up the gun, nope, I'm sorry, Larlo can't go over to your house, but we'd love to have you come to ours or meet us at the park!

Do you have a pool, trampoline or other hazard?  You have a tramp, what fun!  Is it accessible to the kids when you aren't supervising?  It's not, wonderful!  Larla would love to spend time at your house!

Do you have pets?  You have a yard full of dogs and zillions of cats?  (Mental thought: where are the kids supposed to have room to play?!)  Oh, they're all confined away from children during a play date.  While that's not necessary as long as the animals aren't violent, given how many you have, I appreciate it.

Btw, those are actual playdate invites and the jist of the conversation.  In the case of the dad with the weapons, he stored the gun correctly, but[b] didn't even consider storing the knives anywhere other than a drawer, [/b]and the bow case was never locked.[/quote]
No guns here, but this is where I keep my kitchen knives and I also have prescription medicines in the cabinet.  Also, there has been more than one gun owner here who has said they would lie if asked the question because they don't like the question.  [/quote]

Thanks to the nanny here who provided these questions. That is pretty helpful. We only ask about dogs (bad allergy for one kid) and guns. Have never asked about trampoline, though I should. so far, none of our friends have had pools so we haven't crossed that bridge yet. Like others have mentioned, the actual answer is less important than your response to my question - are you defensive? offended? etc.  If you are offended by the questions, then I think perhaps your priorities are not in line with mine (safety first), and maybe my kid doesn't need a playdate with yours after all.

As an aside, a friend of mine just told me that her neighbor came over for a few minutes to look at a piece of furniture she was selling. She brought her purse with her and had it on the ground. My friend's baby (about 1 at the time), starting pawing at the purse. The neighbor smiled sweetly at her and said 'No, no, honey, you don't want to touch that, I've got my gun in there!'. which for the risk averse, maybe indicates a whole other slew of questions...[/quote]

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