Almost had our first "scary" conversation - Page 2

[BroodyWoodsgal]

We raise chickens and rabbits for meat and eggs. DD is going to be three in June and has absolutely no confusion over where meat comes from. She's never seen me kill an animal (I take that pretty seriously, it feels very personal and sacred to me and between me and the animal...I don't feel that she is old enough to see that moment), but she's seen me skin/pluck, clean and butcher plenty of animals. It's a fact of life at our homestead...I'm home alone with these kids all day and so, they are with me most every moment. I can't tiptoe through the tulips, I've got things to DO. My DD is a HUGE lover of animals and my right hand lady when it comes to collecting eggs, feeding everybody, etc...and it never bothers her at all when it comes time to send a rabbit/chicken to the great farm yard in the sky. I think it is extremely important for children to understand where food comes.

We raise our own meat, so that we can be responsible for our meat eating. I don't want someone else killing my meals. I don't like the way a lot of animals are kept/killed and if I'm going to eat an animal, I want it's blood actually on my hands. It feels really wrong to get a neat sterilized package from who knows where, gizzards that don't actually come from THAT bird, etc. I want my DCs to live that way. I also feel like, when you see the animal walking around your yard and recognize that it is a living, breathing creature...you are more aware of how much meat you eat. Every time you eat a meals worth of rabbit...a rabbit is gone from the earth. It makes you think differently about consumption and the circle of life. So, I WANT my DCs to look into the yard and feel a connection to the animals out there and recognize that the bond we share with that animal is very deep and personal. If she hits a place where she feels it is wrong and is bothered by it, I would FULLY support her becoming a vegetarian and would do everything I could to help her learn how to cook healthy veg meals for herself and I wouldn't push our "farmy" lifestyle on her at all.  But for now, the girl is a nut about rabbit/chicken meat, knows where it comes from and is more likely to try and help me butcher a bunny than turn away in disgust. Or, as she put it not too long ago: "This is a bunny, then it got sick and it was dead. He's our food because it's yummy. He's still my friend." - then continued to eat. This is how simple the world is to an almost three year old.

[meemee]

BRAVO mama. BRAVOwell put. very well put.

i can so relate to that. your sentiments are shared by a friend of ours who truly shares in your philosophy.

she has now welcomed us to join in the process of lamb running around to skinning and the whole 9 yards. yes to my dd who was not raised with the killing process she today eats so much mindfully. not just meat but veggies too. 

while dd and i are rare meatitarians, it has changed our life becoming more mindful of where food comes from. 

[Dizzie]

We had chickens and explained to our DD,2 and DS,4 years old that the chicken we eat comes from the same animal as the one in our backyard. DS calls them eating chicken and pet chicken. They were both very accepting and didn't question it at all. They grasped it very well. Chicken = chicken, same word. Fish was simple too.

However, what we didn't explain was that beef comes from cow. We assumed that the kids understood that beef = cow. Apparantly not. DS had an absolute meltdown a few months back when he asked me where the meat from his hamburger that he was eating came from. He was extremely distressed about the whole thing and was very angry with me for feeding him a cow! I felt terrible about the whole ordeal, like l had tricked him or something. Now l try to be more open and probably give him way much more info than he needs to ensure l cover my bases :)

[Greenlea]

I had the same thing happen with my DS and fish.  He loves fishies (especially Nemo and Shark Tale).  I made fish one night and told him to eat his fish.  He kept looking at it going "feesh? feesh?" and not quite grasping the concept.  And he wouldn't eat it either.  Fish is the only animal we eat, as we are pescatarians, but I'm sure I'll have to have this convo again when I explain why we don't eat other animals.