Why Are We Seeing More Violent Play Among Young Children?

David, a 2 ½ year old boy, has advanced building skills for his age.  He loves to play with duplos and has become quite creative.

However, we begin to notice that he is now creating vehicles with guns.  When we remind him that there are no guns at daycare, he is reluctant to change his plans and in fact requires a lot of coaching and persuasion to comply.

Brian, a four year old, was always fascinated with transportation vehicles and usually played construction, rescue or racing games. Lately he has been calling them “attack games”. He is constantly attempting to destroy a playmate’s game or structure.

These are only two examples of what we begin to feel is a measurable change in the atmosphere at playtime. We are committed to being a non-violent daycare. Children cannot hit or bite because it hurts, cannot grab an item if it is not theirs, cannot build or pretend any existing toy or creative effort is a gun or any version of an attack weapon that will hurt another human.

We know children are often testing, pushing boundaries, copying, challenging and fascinated by what they see and hear. We find it very concerning that we are having a particularly challenging time redirecting the children’s creative efforts.

After several conversations with various parents we discover their dads have been introducing them to portions of the Star Wars movies.  In every case the dad is not only a big Star Wars fan himself, but is passing along much of that love and emotion about the characters and actions to his son.

Seeing a dad and child together (especially a very young one) is one of the most heartwarming sights ever.  Obviously it is a great thing that that these dads are sharing one of their meaningful youth experiences with their son.

However it is important that the dads clarify that Star Wars is an imaginary world with imaginary characters and should not be re-enacted during playtime in an aggressive physical manner.

We may be ahead of the curve or behind the curve but the last year is the first time we have children so connected to Star Wars.

Children will always apply their family and social experiences during playtime.  It is important that they get a non-violent message from their parent in terms of how they interpret the stories.

It is a wonderful father/son bond but it needs some guidelines!