Sunday, January 20, 2008

Nature vs Nurture

When I was in college, I had to write a paper on my opinions on the hot issue of nature vs. nurture. I came to the same assumption as all the professionals in all the books that I researched. Both play a big part in our development and lives. Yesterday Connor was showing me that this is alive and true.

We all know that "Ratatouille" is the newest craze in the Nelson family. We are studying cooking because we were inspired by the movie. (thanks a lot Grandma Teese!) We have looked at various types of rat poison in the stores. (nice, huh?) And we even credit the movie to Fluffy's attempt to escape. (remember that post?) Well, we have also had to discuss guns. In our home we have no toy guns. We don't watch movies with guns~except mommy and daddy's favorite history movies about the Civil War and WWII. We don't play video games that involve guns. Then along comes a homely little old lady who tries to kill Remie the rat with a SHOTGUN! Hello! Joseph promptly gave his brothers the lecture about how only soldiers, police officers, and hunters use guns. (that would include each of my brothers and dad) NOT kids. Connor never heard a word. He just instinctively knew that he was a boy and boys like guns. It's the nature part of him. Boys=guns. The nurture part would be the fact that we let him watch the movie. Last night he put two wrapping paper tubes together and went around the house "shooting" everyone in the family with his "dart gun". That's what he called it. Joseph gave his speech again and again, Connor didn't hear a word.

Don't really know what my point to all of this is. I just know that this goes to prove that no matter how hard you try to keep certain things out of the home (at least until they are older), there will always be something bringing it in. Oh well!

On a nicer side, the little boy that was going postal on his family last night gave his first prayer in Primary today. He thought sitting in the choir seats was cool, but getting to talk into the microphone was awesome! I had to coach him what to say. Not because he didn't know what to say, but I needed to get him to say thank you for Primary instead of bless grandma Teese's feet. It was very cute and we are very proud of him.

1 comment:

Shauna said...

We also have a strict no gun policy at our house. Well, at least I do. My mother apparently doesn't really hold much for what my rules are, because last time we were in Idaho, she took Spencer to the drug store and he came home with, none other than, a toy gun. I said, "Mom! I don't allow guns in my house!" to which she replied, "I tried to talk him into other toys, but he really REALLY wanted the gun." Umm, YEAH! That's cause he can't have them! (sigh) So, Grandma won out and we now have a toy gun at our house. We have a no shooting people rule. You can shoot monsters and dinosaurs, but no people. If you shoot at people, the gun is GONE. So far so good. I'm really just waiting for the gun to break so that we can go back to our peaceful, gun-free existence again. Those grandmas and their spoiling! And those boys and their need for guns! You just have to love 'em, right? :)