Boys will be bo... Hey! Cut that out!

So I'm getting my son (from this point on referred to as "The Boy") ready for bed tonight. He's supposed to be getting his jammies on but, being male and all, he of course has to take a few minutes to wrestle with one of his stuffed animals.

There's a hierarchy for the stuffed animals around here. Bruiser, is a chubby hound-dog-looking guy who's been around since The Boy was a baby. As a matter of fact, Bru was sitting in the crib waiting for TB to be born. He's been around since day one. He can do no wrong.

Whiffer is a smaller stuffed hound dog who came along a bit later in the game. Probably when TB was about 6 months old. He's still a favorite, but for some reason he's become a small bean-filled scapegoat. If something goes wrong, it's probably Whiffer's fault.

So anyway, TB's wrestling around with Whiffer when I tell him to cut it out and go brush his teeth. So he says to Whiff "You just wait until I get my Wolverine Claws. Then you're gonna get it."

Mommy reaction: gasp…gasp…gasp…rolling around on floor clutching heart… OK not really, but I was surprised.

These are the "claws" my son was referring to.

Damn! Would NOT want to see those things coming at me in a dark alley.

Now I'm an X-Men fan. I grew up reading the comic books, thanks to my comic-lovin' cousin (who's a new daddy by the way. Go Rick and Ruth!) There's a "Wolverine and the X-Men" television show on NickToons now (which I actually watch) and a new Wolverine Orgins movie that is coming out next month. I'm not in the dark about what goes on cartoons and in comic books. But we're talking about a 6-year-old. He hasn't seen the X-Men movies or read the comics so he's only been exposed to the tamer side of the brand. This is a kid who just 8 months ago was obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine. Now he's talking about "getting" his stuffed dog with pretend claws. Jeez.

Yeah, yeah. Kids go through stages and he's moving out of the preschool stage into more of a "boy" area. But seriously what kind of anger issues are going on in this boy area? They're wrestling, doing pretend jujitsu on each other, shooting lasers out of their hands and chasing each other around with toy light sabers and swords. Basically trying to destroy each other.

We accept this behavior a "boys being boys" but is it really? Boys are naturally competitive, and lovers of action and movement. So does that translate into trying to kill, maim and beat the crap out of each other? Or is that coming from somewhere else?

Editorial Note: I explained to TB (not in these exact words) that even thought Whiff is just a stuffed animal, it's still pretty creepy and really mean to threaten him or anyone else with large metal/plastic claws. Also that Wolverine uses his claws to help people, not the hurt his friends.