"Child draws disturbing image - Quandry!" Topic

OK. I'm in a quandry. It's about an image my youngest son has drawn, in fact he errs toward this type of image when he draws, and I think it may be my fault, so I'm looking to you, fellow gamers, especially fantasy types for an ear and perhaps advise.

This is the picture. he explains that it's a monster, that what he is holding is a head that he has ripped off!
picture

I think it is a direct copy of a Horrorclix figure which I bought to convert for use with Marvel Heroscape. It's JESTER. I wanted some clowns to become the Jokers Henchmen. I have since removed the large knife, and the severed head from the figure, but maybe it's too late.

I also have various zombies for use with the game, again from the Horrorclix range, so fairly graphic.

My sons are 3 year and 7 years respectively.

so my questions are:

1 – Are my wife and myself over-reacting by being concerned by these disturbing images, or should I do something to correct this?

2 – Should I pack away my 'unsuitable games' for a few years, until they are old enough – (But by which time I may well have lost all interest in them myself).?

I really don't know what the answer is, so if any of you have had similar experiences I would welcome any comments.

Thank you.

Jay

Yes, you are overreacting.

No you should not pack away your stuff.

I drew pictures of dinosaurs eating people all the time when I was a kid. I drew a lot worse when I was an adult. I'm not a violent person now and never have been. I really don't think you have anything to worry about. You will probably cause more damage to your kid by freaking out about it than anything else.

The one thing I remember doing specifically was drawing people in recess and then a friend would hold the drawing, usually on that crappy recycled paper that they gave you for note pads, and you would slash it with your pencil. A bunch of us did that. All of us are productive non-violent citizens today.

I wouldn't be overly concerned unless the images are mommy or daddy ripping or having their heads ripped off. My kids (ages 3, 6 and 9) draw Star Wars and Power Rangers and similar with stabbings and shootings and explosions. As long as the violence you are exposing them to isn't too graphic then it probably won't be too troubling.
I also wouldn't go as far as completely packing away games and kit, but being more discreet about stuff lying around may be an idea (my middle one used to be literally terrified of an Ogre model I was painting and converting when he was younger).

Hope that helps.

Same here. My mother loves to tell this story of me from when I was 4.

It is parents night at school and all us kiddies have painted a picture. My mom and dad know my desk immediately. Most of the pictures are bright, cheery and colorful. Mine is dark blue, purple and black with a streak of yellow and orange. The subject?

Frankenstein running away from the house he has set on fire!

And now I'm completely normal.

Story 2:

My father was a career army man. So my parents decide – no toy guns. They figure I'll get enough of that with him being in the military. Then one day my mother sees me in the back yard playing with all my friends. I am using a branch as a gun. Ban lifted the following Christmas…

Shoot, I drew pictures like that when I was his age, and so did my daughter. Nothing to worry about.

I am using a branch as a gun.

Extra Crispy, I can't tell you the number of times I've seen kids in the neighborhood doing just that. I've also seen lightsabers used as guns. The little girl next door used to use her Barbie doll as a gun – bending the legs into a grip, and "shooting" by pointing the head at the other kids.

Kids are violent/aggressive. The important thing is how that violence is chanelled. Playing games and knowing it's make believe is good. It's when they don't realise it's make believe and start getting nasty with other kids that you need to worry.

It actually also is a way for kids to deal with things, including violence etc. they cope with everyday and you cant stop that (unless you go live in an abandoned area with no newspaper, radio and tv).
indeed, freaking out too much over it will definitely cause more damage, I dont have kids, but have been on the drawers side with the freaking out part in parents.

I'm not a parent and so please don't take my advice too seriously, but I don't think you have anything to worry about. If you are around the same age I am, we grew up with violent Tom and Jerry and Roadrunner cartoons and I don't think they did any harm.

I and pretty much every freind I had at that age drew pictures like that and none of us grew up with a casual attitude toward real violence.

Overreacting.

Brian

I concur that this is just natural for most boys around that age.

When I was little, I was fascinated by sharks. I had a rubber great white with an open, toothy maw and a hollow body, he must have consumed thousands of little plastic army men. There was also never any red food coloring in the house, because I wanted lifelike blood to billow out when they got 'et. I need to go ask my mother what she thought the first time she came into the bathroom to find her seven year-old sitting in the tub surrounded by green army guys floating in red bathwater.

Kids always draw gruesome/violent pictures. I think the trend towards suppressing this, and things like horsing around, probably does more damage than it prevents.

Human kids are just like other animal kids – does anybody freak out when kittens are wrestling anound biting each other?
-Kle.

Intent is also important. Kids and violence is one thing, they really don't understand what's really happening. If, however, torture seems to be involved you may want to consult a professional.

Remember to always consider the source when taking advice.

I did monitor what my son saw, watched, played with and so on. Not modern over-protective. Just old-fashioned normal monitoring. No violent video games, no horrorclix, nothing like that allowed. Explained it too. Church helped as well.

Guess what. He is now 17. Many of our friends call our son "a parent's dream". Took tons of work!

So my answer would be to put it away.

BTW I also used to be an elementary teacher before I became an professor.

A number of years ago my mother and I were going through some of my early elementary school drawings. It seems that I loved to draw ships with torpedos shooting towards them. At that time I was not yet into military history so not too sure where that all came from. I did grow up relatively normal despite torpedoing ships full of innocent people. And I'm not really a naval gamer either…

Yep, nothing to worry about unless they also start torturing animals or storing eyeballs in the freezer.

Hmmm. I'm going to go against the flow a little bit.

Drawings can be a window into a child's inner thoughts. And that's a really disturbing image for a three year old to conjure up. Have you asked him why he does those drawings?

If it continues, a visit to a child phsychologist might not be a bad idea.

As long as the imaginary monsters aren't having sex with anything, I wouldn't worry too much.

Children DO NOT always draw violent images. Children express their emotions, conscious and subconscious through play and imagery. This may not be indicative of anything else, but then again it could be. Try having your child draw a family (don't say your family, just "a family") and see if the trend continues. Try the same with "a house". If your child draws a violent or negatively emotionally charged image you may want to consider talking to them, asking them how come (not "why") they decided to draw such images. You may want to bring the child to a play therapist for evaluation. As a child therapist there are certain things that I watch out for. Negatively charged imagery drawn by child consistently is one thing that throws up red flags. If something does come out, DO NOT blame yourself. More than likely it is likely of no direct fault of your own. Simply be supportive of your child and show unconditional love.

Forest Pavel, MS
Intensive In-Home Counselor for At-Risk Youth

Does the monster have a deeply unhappy look on its face? Generally Kiddy-shrinks worry less about the topics of the images the kid draws than what the beings in the pictures are feeling.

So a man getting eaten by a cheerful monster – OK. A kid in a sunny flower-meadow with a face full of misery – Not OK.

Pat

I always drew soldiers, Godzilla, that sort of stuff and lots of violence and mayhem when young. I'm not currently incarcerated or institutionalized.

Now if this goes beyond drawing, then get upset.

In school, they gave us these funny little papers to draw a picture to be transfered to a dinner plate for Mothers Day. I started drawing a picture with soldiers, blood, gore, tanks, a truly excellent picture of WWII mayhem if ever I penned one. It was for my mom so I did my best work giving it everything I had. I proudly ran up to show my work to the teacher, she was horrified. Worse yet, no more special slips of paper for a redo. She lectured me on how I was suppose to drawn some thing pretty. I went back and drew some flowers around the battle field hoping that might somehow help.

Plate got made and I took it home to my mom. Expecting another lecture. My mom's comments where why are there little flowers all over the battle field? I explained what had happened. She laughed her butt off. She treasures that plate to this day. Still drags it out on occasion to tell the story.

Your kids picture looks pretty cool to me it is clearly a monster, pretty good one if you ask me. My advice is save it, might become a nice story someday. If the picture is the only thing amiss, do not worry about it. Or you could just have the little one add some flowers to make it a bit nicer.

LLC aka Ron

Jay,

When I was a single parent, I brought my two young children who were about 6 and 10 at the time, into work at night along with my friends. I would sit in my office and my friends would be in my large office on my employees' machines and we
d yell and scream at each other, playing Doom II. My kids would sit and draw (or go and slide in their stocking feet on a very large conference table in our board room).

My office wall was covered with their pictures, some of them were drawn by my little girl and entitled "Doom" and had the words "drip drip" on them with pictures of dripping blood.

My kids are 18 and 22 now and both are the nicest people you'd ever meet, are doing well with themselves and have not developed into ax murderers.

My office wall is empty now, but much of the art is sitting in a folder in my filing cabinet and I look at it with smiles, occasionally.
--
Tim

As long as the imaginary monsters aren't having sex with anything, I wouldn't worry too much.

Heh, heh. True. :)

***

Jay-

The last place you should go for advice on this topic is here, with the possible exception of young Forest (above).

This book is an interesting read.

link

"Jones forcefully argues that violent video games, movies, music and comics provide a safe fantasy world within which children learn to become familiar with and control the frightening emotions of anger, violence and sexuality. "

I'm no therapist but I do have two boys.

Although it may be disturbing to you, the drawing itself is probably nothing to worry about. My older son draws war scenes as often as not. I'd be more worried if their behavior towards other kids and things was destructive.

I wouldn't worry too much. Overreaction would probably cause more harm than good. I remember my now extremely bright, gentle child playing 'planes fly into buildings I built out of blocks' just after 9/11 when he was 4. It freaked me out as an adult, but I calmly let it go. You just have to keep an eye on it, talk about it calmly. If you see other signs, then you need to step in.

However, I would recommend not deliberately exposing your kids to disturbing stuff. That doesn't mean packing up your disturbing stuff, but don't just lay it around in plain sight. My daughter who was 7 at the time, walked into a room where I was watching a Beastie Boys video, which are usually pretty darn tame, but in this video, they had a guy get his head chopped off with a sword. As an adult, I thought it looked mega cheesy, and they made it look super cheesy (obviously paper mache head on an obviously paper mache shoulder) when that scene happened but it freaked my daughter out to the point where she was having nightmares for over a year and had problems going to bed by herself. (This is the same girl who loved Godzilla movies as a 3 year old).

In my own childhood, I was always a military buff, and played plenty of stick gun games, and even had a toy M16. The kids in my neighborhood were pretty brutal- we'd have rock fights, wrist rocket fights, and kids would often play physically violent games (to the point where we had some broken bones amongst the neighborhood kids). However, I don't own any guns today, and am a non-violent person. I have never had a physical fight in my adult life and always seek to find a diplomatic solution to any threatening situations.

However, media can affect us as kids. I remember when I was about 5 seeing a depiction of a brutal rape on a Starsky and Hutch show of all things, and that freaked me out for a long time after. You never know what will freak a kid out and what won't bother them at all. It all comes down to communicating with your child in a non judgmental manner, seeing what they think about it, and then guiding them into adulthood.

No, you are not over reacting – children react very differently to things we take for granted. If you child is now drawing those types of images – you should not allow him to play, view, or otherwise be around those figures. Especially if they have nightmares or exhibit other behavior which appears to be countenanced by the figures in question. You have to be careful with what you let your kids see at those ages. There is new data which indicates that children are very susceptible to traumatic events at very early ages and that they remain with them for long periods of time.

My son was with me and we were watching the attack on the twin towers – and those visions of the planes going into the buildings has never left his mind. He is always mindful of being around large buildings and he has a great fear every time I must fly somewhere for my job. To the point that when I was asked to present at a national conference in New Orleans he had to make sure that there was a road to that city so I could drive home if I couldn't take a plane.

I would have some very frank discussions with your kids about these toys/models and let them know that they aren't real – and if they are drawing stuff like that – you might want to speak to a professional about it. Just my two cents, but you can't be too careful with the next generation – we take too much for granted and expect everyone to just deal with life and then fail to look out for that which is most precious – our kids.

In 20/20 hindsight – I should never have let my son into the room when the attacks were shown on TV – as it has forced me to discuss it with my son at least once a month over the past years – the same with Hurricane Katrina – you never know what will impact your child's mental health.

Best of luck!

My daughter is 4, and her pictures tend to the "Here's the princess mom and the princess kid and the princess baby…" type stuff. But, just ask her to tell you her "T. Rex and the Puppy" story.

To paraphrase: "One day there was a puppy…no TWO puppies and then a T. Rex came and went RAWWWR! The puppies were scared and ran away, but the T. Rex eat them! Then the puppies were in the T. Rex's tummy and there was blood on their heads and in their hair and in their eyes. Then the puppies cried and went, "wahh! T. Rex eat us! We want our mommies!" So they got a ladder and climb up the T. Rex mouth and jump out. Then the bad horsie came and stepped on the T. Rex and then squish the puppies."

There was also the time she told me how bad it would be to cut your hand off with a really sharp knife…

Kids copy behavior and images a lot at those ages, especially from their parents, and they rarely understand exactly what they're copying. If this is a one-off thing, I doubt it means anything beyond the general desire to imitate daddy's interests. Take the opportunity to introduce to some (less graphic) gaming instead of worrying yourself.

That said, you still want to be careful about this sort of thing or you're likely to have child welfare types from his school (who are professional over-reactors) pestering you. PC society has made (often ill-considered) meddling in other people's parenting a commonplace occurence.

link That's my daughter's stuff, now. You can imagine what her teachers might have had to say when she was younger. But in fact, she drew horses then :)

1066.us

If you're asking the question, you already know the answer.

Nothing anyone says here will matter…they are not you and they are not responsible for you kids, you are.

Do what you know is right.

I wouldn't panic, but I would talk to him about it and find out what's behind the drawing. If that's just his idea of an exciting image, there you go. A bit young, but not off-track. If he has nihlist or hateful thoughts, you can have a conversation about that, and then keep one eye on it.

I've always been careful of my children's mental diet. They were both over ten before we let them watch Indiana Jones. We show them only certain Monty Python sketches. There are games I'd like to play with them, but don't.

I'm not overprotecting them. They've known all about sex and and racial genocide and the other reals truths about the world since they were six. But its the context of these topics are important, and I don't want them exposed to brutality in a casual context until they've developed the discernment to handle it.

Its not just about "will they grow up to be violent," because obviously they won't, necessarily. Its also about giving them a chance to be kid, its about giving them a chance to grow in judgement.

When they're babies and toddlers the world revolves around them – they're every need is met and not much is expected of them in terms of chores or serving other people. To grow from this bizarre state to an adult that cares about and helps others is tricky, and its confusing for younger kids when we expect them to understand that we're very concerned about out neighbor who broke his leg, but its cool that this guy in the game got his head ripped off.

So don't panic, but discretion with kids is important with violent or sexualized imagery.

Andrew

I'm a teacher who works with kids of all ages, and I must say that if your son were in my class I'd compliment his skill, ask for a story or something to go with the picture, and move on. This sort of image is extremely common, and in my opinion, extremely healthy. Kids who draw monsters and vibrantly violent images are very often the most creative and imaginative kids in my class. Kids who sullenly sit in the corner and have little interest in their drawings…they worry me.

I would read the book 'Killing Monsters' referenced above. The author has gathered a lot of compelling research in that book, and I found it very persuasive. That book would argue that over-reacting is by far the most likely thing to harm your child. When an adult gets very concerned over a child's drawing, they imbue that drawing with a certain power it previously did not have in the child's mind. In a way, it is the adults that have more trouble distinguishing 'pretend and real' much of the time.

On a personal level, my son loved drawing violent images/monsters at a very young age. Today he's a very caring, well-balanced, and fun young man with a deep distaste for actual violence perpetrated on real humans. He still likes monsters and action movies, however.

Personally, I don't think there's anything to worry about – let him draw what he wants at that age – if you've ever read CAlvin & Hobbes especially the cartoons where he's fantasizing about being a giant dinosaur you will see that boys will think about these things.

Don't make a fuss, just give him plenty of pen and paper – who knows you might have an artist to hand.

Also, you should bear in mind that he has an older brother. I have a 7 year old and a 4 year old and my youngest plays much more bloodthirsty games than my eldest ever did- becuase he's learnt from his older brother.
He developed his love of dinosaurs on his own initiative, however and there are regular plastic dinosaur massacres that occur on the living room floor, (the dinosaurs usually survive- it's the heroscape 'pumans' that get eaten).

It's not about the violence, it's about the healing. Be proud of your son, he is all about the healing…see the stiches on the head wound. He'll be an honoured physician one day.

Son to patient "No, it won't hurt for a moment to remove your head, empty it's contents, replace contents with more suitable material and sew it back on. Here, look at my graphic refernces drawn by myself."

Don't worry, be happy, or if you can't be happy, be pappy, but whatever you do, don't be nappy, you see, that would be cr**py

1 – yes
2 – no

Doug

LordLoveaDoug, nice work by your daughter. My daughter is also an artist, who has produced a number of stark images of birth and death. She is also training to be an art therapist, and she doesn't think one drawing, the one posted by Jayster, in isolation is enough to judge anyone.

Jayster, I second Clambo's book recommendation. It is actually a scholarly book containing examination of behavior of children, explanation both for and against. It has an extensive bibliography and reference section…AND it is a fun read!

I have a six year old boy. While he has not gone to the level of detail as your child, he does have a fixation on Pirates. He and I have a lot of conversations about what pirates really were, their "good points" and "bad points". He is also fixated on Star Wars as well. He has seen all the movies for Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean. I had some trepidations about the end of Star Wars Episode III (when Anakin/Darth is burned). I also had some worries about the skeltons in the Pirates movies, as well as some of the potentially nasty scenes on the Flying Dutchman.

My son has come away with different memories of them. He has other things that he focuses on, still he surprises me with some of his "play" which at times is him being a hero of some sort and vanquishing his evil foe in a most gory and drastic fashion.

Still, with all that said, my wife and I have decided to wait a couple more years before we show him the Indiana Jone films.

Children use play and art for more than just entertainment. Be prepared to discuss the reasons that he drew the picture (as mentioned above, not necessarily why but more along the lines of what are you feeling when you drew that?)

I also strongly second Pavelft's advice.

Andy Welkley
"Your Phrendlee Hevy Phyzx T-chrr"

Thank you all very much. This has actually been a very well balanced set of comments, covering the broadest possible range of advise. But I think my course is clear.

1 – Not to be too fussed by it. There is no need to bring in outside help or over react in that way. Nor do I need to stop him drawing, or remove the games cupboard.

2 – To monitor more closely which of my own toys and games, the children have access to. – (I know I should have thought about that more in the first instance. Perhaps I was more concerned with the mechanics of the game for suitability, than the actual figures used.)

3 – Perhaps alos monitor more closely which TV programmes he can watch, this may be slightly harder, due to the influence of his older brother. At the end of the day, it's for the most part an isolated incident, and there are no other underlying concerns.

Thanks again

The trick being, that kids often explore things like this, to help them get a grip on situations they're not familiar with, and possibly scared by. It's basically a way of training their brains to confront a situation a bit more rationally.

Look on the bright side, he has some artistic skills. Just wait a little longer and you can put him to work on your minis. I started my kids out by paying them to do the base coats on my minis.

I have five (yes I said 5) children, who are quite normal and very weird compared to "normal" society.

I would not "over react", that how ever is pretty broad guidance. My parents also did not allow guns, until the umpteenth time that a neighbor asked me to return their childs gun I had borrowed. I am nonviolent for an Army Ranger, and while I do own guns my uses of them are non agressive. I have taught all of my children gun safety rules and they know what the purpose for guns are.

That said I did have nightmares as a child from some movies. So as a parent it is up to you to use judgement and every opportunity to talk with your children . So take the time and calmly ask questions, there has been some very good advise, some a little less so. Remember children are precious so it is always best to "handle with prayer".

She is also training to be an art therapist, and she doesn't think one drawing, the one posted by Jayster, in isolation is enough to judge anyone.

For sure. But art content alone, in any amount, also isn't reason enough to bug a kid. If he's not hurting anyone and behaves civilly toward his peers and teachers, then nobody should rag on him for his level of school work: they are not connected in the slightest.

When I was in grade school, I was so bored out of my mind that EVERY teacher I had was constantly harping on my attention span: "Doug has great potential, but he daydreams too much." While daydreaming, I was usually doodling on my Weekly Reader, altering the pictures with my eraser and pencil. Many years later, my Mom gave me the school stuff she had saved. It was like a reunion and revelation: especially my fifth grade collection of Weekly Readers for the whole year. Three doodles I recall now very clearly, were Winston Churchill raising the "V" with his index and middle finger: I had erased his eyes, drawn in gaping sockets, and erased his finger tips and drawn his "eyes" stuck on the ends. I erased numerous "holes" in a picture of Martin Luther King and his wife, and then penciled in a veritable hail of bullets drilling them through and through. Finally, I took a pic of ships traversing the Panama Canal and penciled in dive bombers and explosions. Examples of these were multipled throughout the year. But back then, things were simpler. Were I in school today, being as I was back then, I would be in hell and in trouble for it too. People need to lighten up, A LOT!

Not going to comment on this directly, but will relate two interesting stories.

On the old "JULIA!" TV series, Diahann Carroll played a nurse and VIet Nam widowed mother with a young son called Cory; One day, young Cory comes home with anote commenting that he continually draws pictures in black crayon, and probably needs therapy. Julia takes him to several therapists and gets all kinds of opinions ranging from father sepration issues to historical anger at slavery. Finally, her boss – Kindly and gruff Loyd Nolan – amakes the one sugggestion no-one else has made 'Why not ask Cory why he only uses black crayon?' The conversation ensues;

J:"Cory . . . Why do you only draw in black crayon?"
C:" I don't , mommy . . . I use colours at home."
J:"But at school, you only use black. Why is that?"
C:"Because I Have short legs."
J:"Oh . . ." (Double take)" Say What!?!"
C:"I got the shortest legs in class – so, when Teacher says it's drawing time, and everyone runs to the art cupboard I get there last, and only the black crayons are left."

The moral:Children think differently. Motivations are therefore somewhat different.

From the real world, an Edinburgh University lecturer was going over some work in a cafe, when another young woman leaned over her work.
"Oh, you're hiring a manager!" exclaimed the other young woman, and began to talk about her work as a personnel officer in a corporation. The lecturer asked why this woman had come to that conclusion: She told the lecturer that all the traits on the list on the table that the lecturer was reading – Socially manipulative, highly intelligent, able to avoid empathy with others, working to minimise the consequences of actions rather than avoid taking the actions, self-focused to a high degree – Were all traits that modern business uses to identify those in management that recieve promotions and favoured for important positions in companies. This lecturer later wrote a thesis on this, after taking out an advertisement in business magazines to identify how many people in senior positions did have all or most of the traits on the list, and found that the young woman was correct; Most of the top people in European and American corporations ahve at least 9 of the 12 featured characteristics on the list – Eleven in the case of Nick Leeson the famed "Rogue Trader". Oh, the list? the twelve identifying or typical behavioural traist of sociopathic and potentially psychopathic individuals.

I'd be more concerned about legal action if he copies a GW figure….

And I found the implications that drawing sex was somehow more unhealthy than drawing violence/decapitations rather interesting: I'm perhaps more worried about the posters than about your son. (That was a JOKE, and a dam' fine one)

(Although I would myself be more worried if he was INTERESTED in sex at his age: Violence is less age-specific)

But I do agree that it's not a likely problem: His answer was innocent enough. It's not like he named the victim, or expressed a fear of it happening to him, etc.

They will mirror what they see the most or most likely what they saw last…so let his next viewing be of something less gruesome and ask him to draw that one, and then try another, then without direct input of a miniature ask him to draw something for you a couple days later.

If he always seems to gravitate towards the gruesome headless blood soaked images even with normal stuff exposure then I would consider a time out from the minis for the kids for a bit. In the end would you let your 3 and 7 yr olds watch a modern R rated movie? They are getting jaded due to the availability of horror, x rated, and other OTT subjects at an alarming rate but sometimes a kid needs to be shown stuff that is age appropriate, period.

Should you take a break from the boys having access to Dad's adult hobby?

Ask yourself this, if you were running a game store and the local kids playing poke mon or yugio were there (7-8yr olds with 3-4yr brother/sister hanging on as crumb gobblers tend to do)…would you allow the same images you are dealing with?

It sounds like a fairly innocent issue and is nothing more then Jr saying poop or damn, just being the mirrors that they are.

Show them safe minis and see if they still draw the bloody stuff.

Best of luck and health.

Best of luck, man. I think you're on the right track. My only advice -- as an uncle of 11 kids -- is to pay more attention to TV and movies. You can keep the gaming part more in a fantasy world, but live-action violence can be more easily confused with reality.

------------

By the way, I've had concerns about this when gaming with younger kids. I once ran a public playtest of our upcoming cowboys/zombie game with two kids as young as 5 and 6. I had some suitably creepy descriptive text in the intro and, on the fly, toned it waaaay down for the kids. I also didn't go into any fun descriptions of their splattered brains when the zombies got shot in the head. I also worked to keep the tone light and a little cartoonish.

Normally, when I run a game with junior high school and high school boys (teens), I really ramp up the gore and am not afraid to make it sound really guesome. Of course, these older boys REALLY like it that way (heck, most of their dads do, too).

Anyway, back to the point at hand. As a GM, I run age appropriate games, especially when I'm in public. But boys are violent. I've had lots of kids play Gutshot over the years, and without fale the most daring, foolhearty and bloodthirsty players are boys between the ages of 10-13. They do things no rational person would ever do, and sometimes just shoot other minis just for the fun of it (mission objectives be danged!).

Good luck, man.

Children suck up knowledge like a sponge. Everything you don't want them to see…they'll see. Everything you don't want them to learn…they'll learn. Everything you don't want them to have they'll crave and will find a way of getting.

Guess what? They've always been like that.

My son used to love watching Thomas the Tank engine. It's about a bunch of trains riding around the island of Sodor having adventures. It is very moralistic, teaches old fashioned values and has lots of bright and interesting characters. What did my young son learn from it? Train crashes! Every game he used to play with his registered trade mark, Thomas engines used to end up with destruction and mayhem.

Pokemon. It's great, lots of fighting, lots of courtesy and nothing ever dies. When my son used to play with his little Pokemon, everything died.

Children often draw pictures that may be violent or scary in nature. It's only if they turn up all the time and are followed by changes in the child's personality that you should start worrying. If you get a handful of pix of things being killed and your child is still the happy chirpy child that they have always been, look at the picture for what it is and comment on the standard, not necessarily the content. If you say that you don't like what is depicted…you'll get loads more pix of the same! That's what children are like.

As for taking the child to a psychologist…that's up to you to decide…but it's an awfully big decision to make over something as trivial as a children's monster pic.

Read some Roahld Dahl books and you'll soon get an insight into what children like. Some of the stuff he writes about would make your toes curl but children have been reading it for years!

The only thing you need worry about is if he still plays with toy soldiers when he grows up…