What should I say to this parent? - Page 2

[Alyantavid]

Originally Posted by becoming

I would tell them about it for sure. They may not even know that their son knows where it is. Their son may be thinking a real gun is a BB gun. You never know. I wouldn't mention the fact that you think/know it's a BB gun. I'd just call and let them know that their child showed your child a gun at their house and that you thought they'd like to know. I also probably wouldn't let my child go over there again, not because they have guns (we have guns, and not just BB guns), but because obviously they were not being watched at all. The fact that they had access to a gun that was presumably in a parent's closet or some other place parents would ordinarily not want their children's friends going into, makes me think that they were being ignored completely, and I wouldn't be comfortable with that. Obviously 8-year-olds don't need to be constantly supervised, but if they were alone and out of earshot for long enough to get the gun, find the bullets, discuss the gun, and then get away from the gun before the parents found them, they were being ignored for too long.

That. We have guns in our house (and not hidden either). They are locked and our children know the rules. When they have a friend over, we shut the door of the room where the guns are and the kids know they aren't allowed in there. And I would certainly know if they were.

[pjs]

Not overreacting. I don't think anyone who dies from an accidental gunshot wound is thinking- yeah this'll kill me. It's accidental because people don't believe it will happen to them/their child/the visiting kid.

If I were the mom who owns the gun, I'd definitely want to know that my child is boasting about the gun/ammo to another child- clearly he is interested in it and who knows what could come of his unsupervised interest.

[Youngfrankenstein]

Originally Posted by moondiapers

I wanted to add, that when we have extra kids over....we lock our bedroom too because that's our private space....and we've has some strangely nosey kids visit us in the past.

No kidding! We had a Bible study lunch here a few weeks ago and dh found one of the 18 month olds with the shampoo bottle from our master bedroom walk-in shower. ARG! He also dumped dh's rare book on the floor and managed to change the time on his alarm clock and he was late for work the next day! I don't blame the babe but it was a good lesson. If they won't supervise him, I should just lock the door.


OP, please don't get upset, just let her know and get the facts. I don't see why this situation would have to be unpleasant at all. If you feel she doesn't respond in a way that you are comfortable with, then you can deal with it but give them a chance.