To think children should know where meat comes from?

[TheClacksAreDown]

Last weekend I went to a family BBQ at which I saw my cousin, I'll call Abi. She has 3 DCs (7, 4 and 1) and I have a nearly 4 year old. I was sitting chatting to Abi and her eldest two and we got talking about the food. In this I mentioned in passing that I really liked the sausages from a farm shop we sometimes go to and that they are from the pigs they breed on the farm. Suddenly Abi is glaring at me. I'm unclear what I've done but move the conversation on swiftly. When the children run off a few minutes later, Abi looks annoyed and says to me "the children don't know where meat comes from and I don't appreciate you bring it up". I was really surprised and said "oh, sorry" and she stalked off. Had I known her views, I would have respected them.

Now I'm the first to admit that Abi and I are quite different in many respects, which is of course fine. Of particular relevance here, she is vegetarian (I am not but no problem with her being one) and she is quite girly (I'm not) and she is not brilliant at coping with tough messaging so on one level I can see why she finds skipping the topic appealing. But I was still quite surprised at the approach and couldn't help but feel it would lead to problems. Her eldest is hardly a baby any more and isn't it going to come to a nasty shock when she finds out where her food comes from? The children do eat meat but it mainly seems to be things like ham, nuggets and sausages etc which obviously don't immediatley resemble the animals they come from so I could see why the children wouldn't have made the link themselves yet.

Don't get me wrong, I've not been subjecting my DC to gruesome details of slaughterhouse practice or reiterated at dinner time "Milly the Moo Cow died to give you this beef casserole, now eat up", but DC does seem to get that sausage come from pigs, steak comes from cows, chicken breasts comes from chickens etc and sees meat being chopped up at the butchers. We visit farms to see the animals and with fish we look at fish in the aquarium/lakes etc but DC also enjoys going to the fish counter and taking home a fish to cook.

So, AIBU to think that if children and going to eat meat then they should gently have the idea of where meat comes from raised with them in age appropriate ways? Or is Abi's approach normal and I'm out of step with what is appropriate?

[TheHouseOnBellSt]

Here's the thing. Some children will immediately refuse to eat meat if they know it's from an animal...at least for a while...therefore, if she can't be doing with the fallout from that, it is up to her to decide when they can know. As Toys says, a fussy child's menu will then shrink even more. My DD1 became a vegetarian aged 9 for about 6months and it was a royal pain in the arse.

[carrie74]

I think young children tend to just accept things much more easily than adults, and it was v important to me that my kids understood where their food comes from (we live rurally, so it wasn't beyond probability that they'd be at school with farming families). I think the longer she leaves it, the harder it will be for the children to accept it, and maybe that will work out well for them as a family, so it won't be a problem.

But equally I wouldn't want them finding out while eating meat in a way that shocked and upset them.

[TheClacksAreDown]

I don't really know what is going on there to be honest. The Husband is pleasant but wants a quiet life so I doubt has made a fuss but perhaps, who knows. And to be honest I'm going to leave it well alone. I don't seem them much and when I do I will steer clear of the food chain and animals generally. But good to know I wasn't out on a massive limb with this one as I was so surprised at her reaction.

[Lozy79]

Ive gently bought the subject up with my 3 1/2 yr old and she thought i was very silly to say such a thing. "But they would get all squashed silly Mummy". I haven't corrected her and will talk about it again in a few months.

[lardyscouse]

I'm a veggie and have been for 34 years but I would say that you eating meat from animals that have had a very happy life is far preferable to 'Abi' buying processed meat from, very probably, dubious sources. I wouldn't feed my dog processed meat though, let alone children if another source was available.