Mommas, please don't let your babies grow up to play with toy guns....

Dear the Parents who walked around The Palo Alto, California Avenue Farmer's Market today, with a boy on your shoulder, carrying a toy gun, that looked very, very real, and pretending to shoot at everybody walking by:

Maybe I am being somewhat critical and judgmental.  I am the mom of two girls, who have never played with toy guns, and have no interest in toy guns.  Maybe I just live in the middle of liberal, hippy land, where we teach our kids kumbaya, saving the environment, getting George Bush out of office and obviously hold liberal points of view.  I don't know, maybe I am over-reacting.  But when I saw your four (maybe five) year old son on your shoulders, carrying a toy gun (gosh, I certainly hope it was a toy gun, and not REAL!) and pretending to shoot everyone in the crowd, I just had to judge you.

May I make some "friendly" suggestions here?  Maybe if he is "really" into guns, you purchase a few plastic toy guns that DO NOT look real.  Or maybe you tell him that guns are not appropriate for a four year old to be carrying around, and focus him on something else, like Lego's.  Or maybe you all go together to a child psychologist and learn that carrying a gun around, in a crowd of people in the heart of Palo Alto, California is NOT appropriate, at any age.  And just maybe, you might take this a little more seriously.  Cause Parents of this kid, I was not the only one staring at (and judging) you and your kid.  I am just the only one blogging about it.