Toy Guns, Barbies, Open Pill Bottles…

Andie Fox, on her failed toy gun ban:

Since that night I have been either giving up or making well-considered peace with him; I never can tell with my parenting. In my head I played with some of the moratoriums I saw other parents use: no assault rifle toys, but ninja swords and pirate muskets could be historically charming enough to be okay. I also considered the rule some parents have made about not allowing toy guns, but turning a blind eye to sticks and pieces of toast that make pew pew noises.

What was/is verboten in your home? My husband was welcome to pick off squirrels, unsupervised, with a .22 (BB guns were for babies), while my parents were so 1980s progressive that they had already figured out that some aspect of cowboys-and-Indians was inappropriate, so they bought us two cowboys-and-Indians sets and threw out the cowboy stuff, leaving us with culturally-appropriated headdresses and plastic bows and arrows. Baby steps, guys.