Before I got married, I had six theories about bringing up children. Now I have six children and no theories. – John Wilmot

When my kids were little, I told them that “gun talk” was kind of like “bathroom talk.” That is, we aren’t ashamed of our firearms and there’s nothing wrong with them, just like there’s nothing wrong or shameful about needing to use the potty sometimes. But other people sometimes feel funny when we talk about those things, so we only talk about them to the people we live with.

That worked for my sons when they were around ages three or four. As they got a little older, and started talking about “bad guys,” I gave them a fantasy-almost-reality idea they could play with: “There might be a bad guy spy around! We should never ever talk about [blah blah blah] so that the bad guy spy won’t find out…”  (This, of course, is the literal truth: we don’t talk about firearms with unknown others because we never know if the sweet person we’re talking to actually has a criminal family member who might be looking for a place to rob.)

I’m pressed for time, so the rest of today’s free ice cream comes in the form of a question for you to answer for each other:

If you have kids, how have you taught your kids not to talk to outside others about your firearms? What tips would you give a young mom on this topic?