Pigs/ pork, cows/ beef chicken and er chicken. When do they make the connection - and do they care?

[stottiecake]

We had a great time at a petting farm the other day and it just got me thinking about what ds will think about eating the animals he was so captivated by.

I expect there will be a few conversations about it at some point (he is only 19mo) but just wondered what others experiences were.

Thanks

My 3.2 yo knows- in fact she asked me what animal cauliflower come from the other day

I don't remember not knowing, or ever being freaked out by it. I think the thing is not to hide it or you run the risk that they will start only eating processed meat or something.

My parents used to tell me to eat my dinner or the poor little lamb would have died for nothing...

I probably told my eldest a year or so ago, when he asked. He doesn't seem bothered although he won't believe that people eat snails!

i remember realising that lamb was lamb about age 9 and refusing to eat meat for quite a while..

DD2 (age 4) said a few weeks ago - "is chicken, chicken?" i said "yes", she said, "it's yum" and tucked in. i was gobsmacked. DD1 (age 6) laughed and laughed and ate hers too. She doesn't really like meat so i was quite surprised. i thought she might have used it as an excuse not to eat it.

the conversation then progressed - is lamb, a lamb? what is steak? etc....

I just told DD that the cow is where beef comes from (you eat the cow), the same with chicken, bacon, pork etc.

Her response was 'I like chicken/bacon/beef' so wasn't bothered.

Kids really just take things in their stride and if we parents don't make a fuss, then generally neither do they.

Yes MyCat that is what I was thinking - about not making a fuss and so they won't either.
hmm.
Butterpie - just saw your thread in Chat - good luck with the wedding - I love your plans for getting to the church! fabulous!!!
Thanks all for responses!

I agree that as long as you grow up knowing and it's not a shock revelation quite late on, it should be fine.

I grew up on a farm, so have "always" known.

There was some distinction on pets though - e.g. if a lamb was hand raised because the ewe died when it was born, we would never eat it or so said my dad.

Boy has always known AFAIK, we talk about which animals things come from and which farm they come from. He knows and talks about his eating one of "janes cows" when we have beef and one of " katies daddy's pigs" when we have sausages.

It does help living in a farming community and buying local.

DD was raised as a vegetarian; we decided that she could eat meat when she asked to. She was four when she wanted to, we explained that meat came from animals (not hysterically, just factually) and she doesn't care at all.

My dd aged 5 sat in front of glass door of oven sobbing 'It's tight on the turkey!'one Christmas and became a vegetarian as soon as I let her[up till then she just spat meat down the loo without me knowing .Her son is 3.9 now and knows where meat comes from and says .'As long as we dont eat Brown Cow its ok.'Brown Cow lives in the field behind their house and he has 'conversations' with her.Fortunately she is a dairy cow.

When I went to buy my chickens dd (then 4) wanted us to get an extra one to make into nuggets. (I didn't, btw.) Now whenever we have chicken to eat ds (3) hopefully asks if it's one of ours.
My 10 year old nephew is starting to worry that various elements of farming (eg taking away animals' babies) are 'not fair' on the animals.

doing school run my ds(4) saw inside the back of butcher van. asked me what they were inside and told himpigs and they made sausages and he said to me thats sad. i was horrified at his response as he is a fussy eater and sausages and ham form part of his diet as struggle to get anything else into him. didnt stop him eating his tea though

My 3 yr old knows but I am not so sure that he has made the connection between the animal actually dying iyswim? He knows that chicken is chicken and beef is cow but it really doesn't bother him.

DS (21months) has stared making the animal noise of whatever's on his plate after the first bite, he seems to like knowing what he's eating. we live in the country and he does the same on our walks when he sees them in the fields. he's not at all bothered by it.

mine have known since they were able to talk! i told them and they didnt seem bothered at all, so there was never a big discussion. when we go into the butchers they point at what meat comes from what animal and where.

I remember when ds1 was about 4 we were on our bikes and cycled past the pig farm near us... ds1 yelled MMMM sausages!
Not sure how long he'd known but certainly not bothered by it.

I told mine the first time he asked. I caught myself using the word 'abbatoir' to a 2.5 year old.

He has not been worried in the least. He saw the whole trout in tescos and asked how they got killed I told him that a man clonks them on the head (I obvously don't know if this is true but I don't think I have sanitised the process!!!) He then went home and kept asking for me to find more 'dead fish' in his dinner!

I think that we have a responsibility to tell our children where meat comes from.

My neice thinks that pigs make sausages and bacon working in a factory