Is gun play a bad thing? Parents sometimes find it unnerving when they hear shouts of “Bang! Bang!” coming from the top of the staircase and discover their children engaged in full pretend battle. But kids are looking through a different lens than adults. Toy guns—cardboard, Nerf, or otherwise—can be a prop to explore power dynamics, a way for them to use their imaginations to understand different types of authority. This video gives some perspective.

You can read more about kids and pretend guns here.