Who's Calling the Shots?: How to Respond Effectively to Children's Fascination With War Play and War Toys

Children's war play: the issue for parents is no longer as simple as love it or leave it. Nancy Carlsson-Paige and Diane Levin explain the parallel changes in society and children's war play that make a yes or no decision impossible. Children have less control over war play than ever before. Combine high-tech war toys with an increasingly violent attitude in society and in the media, and we get an explosive mix that must be dealt with diplomatically instead of disallowed as forbidden fruit or shrugged off as "natural." The authors discuss several strategies to return creative control of play to children and to lessen the emphasis on violent content.