What the OWP Don't Understand

But my 11 year old does...
Let me explain. No school yesterday (happens about once a week it seems!) because of Thanksgiving break..my 11 year old son had 10 friends over here for an "air soft war". What is that? Well, whatever it is,  it lasts a long time and the boys come back tired, hungry, dirty and thirsty. They spilt into 2 even teams and try to be the winning team by having the other team surrender. They use toy guns, that look real, except for the bright orange tip, and the bullets are tiny round pellets filled with air....revolutionary really because the range of the gun is about 200 feet (with accuracy) and yet they can shoot each other almost point blank and it doesn't hurt (they have to wear goggles all the time). Endless hours of entertainment! This whole air soft war scene is a subculture in itself. The boys watch military history on tv, read military history books, set up the major battles with little green plastic army guys and then try and reproduce the battles in an air soft war! They have well thought out strategies, build elaborate bunkers and trenches(a 6 foot man could fit in to) and just play and play and play. I have come a long way with all of this gun stuff...my oldest son was hardly allowed to think about a play gun, while this son now has the run of the woods. Anyway, the boys debate constantly about what the best weapon is...is it the one that fires the fastest, hardest, farthest?  And they all compare and evaluate each others guns. Well, yesterday, my son traded a pretty crappy old pistol for a huge upgraded rifle. He was very happy with this whole arrangement. I said, "You can't do that! You just ripped that kid off!" He said almost with a sigh at my lack of worldly expertise, "Mom...he entered into this deal knowing what he was doing... and if a kid wants to make a bad trade you have to go with it and take advantage of it..."  hmm.... What do you think of that?  I will give the parent rebuttal tomorrow...