Disturbing play

[Maeve]

My son is obsessed with graphic play. He is always pretending to "kill" things and to be killed. He doesn't play any other way. Any commercial he sees will trigger it. The only channel we can keep the t.v. on is playhouse disney type stuff. No cartoons. And sometimes he can pick it up off that. He always sides with bad guys on ANYTHING. He is the oldest of three boys. He is 6 and he has a 3 year old brother and a 7 month old brother. He got expelled from school for saying some disturbing things to another student which got scared and told a teacher. Any ideas would be helpful. He is under the care of a physician and we have a referral to a Children's Hospital. He has been this way since he was a toddler. How concerned should I be?

[Landon'sMommy]

I can't give you any professional advice, but my son turned 4 in Dec. and I've noticed he really gets into the fighting play and talks about killing people. This may be partly because my husband and I do enjoy playing video games and though I don't let him sit and watch the really graphic ones (we have a tv and xbox in our bedroom) I guess he sees enough to have become interested in that sort of play. There for awhile he would say things like "I need to kill that guy" and I would explain to him that people shouldn't kill other people and that if he wanted to pretend to kill something he should kill the "monsters" (we made up a game similar to that awhile back when he started becoming afraid of the dark) I do know a bit of that is normal boy behavior just like little girls like playing with baby dolls, but it does seem like your son is really obsessed with it. Do you think maybe he has access to watching adult action movies or video games, like maybe a babysitters house or a friends house? Its hard to imagine he picked all that up on his own. Good luck I hope you guys get to the bottom of it!

[Mikey_BKK]

Children are aggressive enough without showing them cartoons and video games making them even more aggressive...
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True that most children grow out of it when they get older, but that is not the whole story - the more exposure to aggression and violence, the more stays there in their unconcious mind
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In my opinion, it is bad parenting to allow young children watch cartoons or play video games with aggression and violence in.
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Yes, I fail and practice bad parenting too sometimes and I occasionally allow my 4 year old to watch cartoons with violence in, but I really try to limit it.
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The world is getting more violent and aggressive for a reason, the reason starts at an early age
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Michael
Father of Idea, the good idea