The other day we were invited to someone’s house for water play. Now for me this means you all wear light clothes, slap on the sun screen and expect your children to get wet (and you to get at least splashed/a bit damp). We were meeting up for play before hand and it was decided at that point that super soakers, etc. (anything bigger than a water pistol) weren’t welcome. Given that most of the participants were 7-year-old boys, this wasn’t a desperately popular restriction, especially given it was last-minute. I assumed at the time that it was about size and the danger of getting wet as it wasn’t an objection to guns as such.
Now I was sure some people would bring their bigger guns, so I put my son’s in the boot just in case, as he was desperate to play with it with his friends. Lo and behold other people did turn up with them and we did get his out of the car. I was glad we brought it otherwise he would have been upset that we had played by the rules and others hadn’t (to be fair they didn’t know a last-minute decision had been made on this point, plus I think they had assumed that water play meant just that).
I was a bit bemused by the restriction about the guns, when the party host proceeded to get out the water balloons. I’ve not used these before, but you can get very wet from these as some of the mothers found out to their cost (much wetter than would have happened with the guns as the children mostly left the adults alone). They are also more aggressive, in a way, if you throw them at other people. Generally, I was a bit bemused by all the restrictions. I think it’s fair to say don’t fire at the adults, pets or any children that are too young, but I’m not sure I get the finer distinctions between types of guns, especially when you allow water bombs. All in all a bit confused.
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