Despite my best efforts to discourage it, my son has always been somewhat trigger-happy. When he was in kindergarten, his teacher banned the children from making bang-bang sounds while forming a pistol shape with their fingers.

Not to be thwarted in his shooting games, my son worked out a special gun-like shape he could make with his hand – something that resembled a pistol to him, but that the teacher simply interpreted as an obscure hand gesture.

Illustration: Robin Cowcher

When he got older, he relentlessly lobbied for Nerf guns, a campaign that lasted about 12 seconds before my husband Kris gave in and bought him some. When I protested, Kris insisted that they were harmless toys, which would get the otherwise couch-bound children out into the yard. Later, as I watched Kris running around firing his preferred Nerf gun, I had to concede that he had a point.

Many who know my son might be surprised by all this, since he is such a sweet, gentle child. As a toddler he was pushed over in the sandpit, and his response was to give his assailant a hug. He used to do karate lessons, which he enjoyed enormously, until they started sparring, which soon became tricky because he would stop to apologise every time he hit someone.