When to buy your son (daughter) a BB gun

After Christmas I received some backlash from family members for approving the purchase of a bb gun for my seven year old son (and subsequently my four year old).  When the idea first was brought up to me I honestly didn’t think twice about it.  When a child is ready you’ll know.

My husband and I are people who enjoy the outdoors.  We regularly take our children camping and fishing and my husband hunts.  We have guns in the home and we regularly preach gun safety to our children (even toy guns are not to be pointed at people).  Our children are expected to respect fire arms and know how to properly handle them.  I wouldn’t have authorized the purchase unless I thought he had a respect for shooting and everything that comes along with it.

We also took into consideration storage and supervision.  Items like guns and bows are locked and placed out of our children’s reach when not in use.  The BB gun was given to my son with the strict understanding that it will only be used under adult supervision and by no means is to come near the gun without supervision.

As I watched my son learn how to aim down the barrel, turn off the safety, and pull the trigger I was proud.  Proud to teach my son a skill that could help him provide for his family.

Proud to pass along a tradition.  

How to Raise a Gentleman (woman)

Is your son/daughter a rude and crude dude/sassy lassy? How about a mannerly lil' man/polite Penelope? Depending on how old you are and where you’re from the term can mean different things. Here’s my definition:

A gentleman is a child or adult who uses their manners and does kind things for others. 



Plain and simple on paper but a little harder to teach. Here are my 3 steps to raising a gentleman (woman): 

1. Create expectations
   Talk to your child about what manners and respect are. The more they know the better. Be sure to change your conversation tactics depending on the age and mentality of your child. Put out clear objectives like “You’ll say please and thank you when asking or receiving something”, “I want you to ask to be excused from the table”, “When we are out in public I think it would be very respectful if you open the door for others”.
   
2. Enforce
   Once you set the expectations enforce them. Don’t let you child have something until they've used there manners, ask opened ended questions to get them use to the idea of including words like please and thank you on requests and suggest good deeds until they get the jest.
   
3. Reward
   Yes, I said reward not reward or punish. This is just my personal opinion but what’s the point of teaching respect to a child when you can’t even respect them enough to explain what they did wrong and offer them the opportunity to grow. A good deed should not go unnoticed but a gentle reminder when it doesn't happen naturally can go a long way. 

Comment below on how your raising you little gentleman (woman).