What is it with boys and sticks? They love them don’t they? From toddlerhood onwards every parent will know about the sticks being brought home. Soon you end up with a pile of sticks in your garden or stacked up by the front door or the back door or both. More disciplined parents insist that sticks are left behind in the woods/park/field, but that can lead to tears and tantrums.
If you are like me, you’ll let the sticks come home and then get rid of them later. Every now and again some go into the garden waste bin as a little present for the council. I take from the back/bottom of the pile so it isn’t too obvious. The most recent sticks stay to give the illusion that nothing has gone.
Now there is a lot of good fun to be had with sticks: making pictures, den building and shapes with sticks (think treasure hunt with stick arrows and the like). In many ways, they are the most popular of toys.There is also a lot of hurt. Every time sticks get played with amongst friends they end up being a weapon, whether intentional of not. I worry about eyes being poked. I really wish they wouldn’t do it, but unless you have eyes in the back of your head, you will find that your child is using a stick as a weapon.
What do you do to combat the stick problem? What rules do you have? Has your child ever been injured by a stick being used as a toy by another child? How do you tackle the stick issue? Is it just a boy thing or are girls just as bad?
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