"What is meat made of mummy'

[Aloha]

I have been avoiding answering this one for AGES...but finally could avoid it no longer while ds was eating shepherds pie this evening. "It's made of animals, darling"
Ds (looking stricken, lip wobbling) "No mummy, it can't be made of animals. (little laugh) Not animals! How could a animal be meat?"
Me: "When animals die, they sometimes turn into meat for us to eat"
Ds (crying quite hard now, not eating) "But they don't die! I don't want them to. They aren't meat! You are telling me things that make me sad!"
Me: 'I'm sorry darling. We won't talk about it any more if you don't want to"

Oh dear.

DH always brings in the gore and blood stuff when this topic comes up. DS just laughs and DD sits there with a look of complete horror on her face! And there is me in the background going "Stop it. Thats enough. Dont. Will you stop saying all that stuff?!"

Feel like I am stalking you NASWM!

I dreaded it, and was steeling myself for self-righteous vegetarianism (like wot I used to do)...and then DD1 said cheerily 'oh, is it, really', and went on chomping. I was shocked.

ds can be a bit fotherington-thomas, I'm afraid.

Oh Aloha, poor little ite. Do you think he'll go veggie now?

We were having lamb last year and dd1 said, "Lamb? Lamb as in the baby lambs in the field?" i just said "well, not those ones just have a try" . It's awul telling them home truths isn't it?

I think it's more that my daughters are a bit heartless when it comes to matters of the taste-bud, Aloha.

If it's any comfort, Aloha, I grew up in the countryside so I always knew where meat came from. Once he's got his head round it he should be OK.
Mind you, I turned veggie as soon as I could (18) so that might not be much help...

Yes, this upset DD1, who is a sensitive little soul, when she found out. But she still eats it. We went to a museum recently, which has lots of stuffed animals in. DD1 asked "Why aren't these animals moving, Mummy?" Mummy rather callously replied "Because they are dead." Cue tears from DD1 while DD2 (who loves to wind her up and knows all the right buttons to press) danced around, singing at the top of her voice "These animals are dead! These animals are dead!"

LOL at being a bit Fotherington-Thomas.
He probably had the penny in the slot and ready to drop, and just needed you to do the telling. What a sweet and thinking boy he is.

DS is a callous little beast, has known for a long time that meat is dead animals, and revels in fantasy games which involve gruesome hunts of wild boars to feed his 'family' - all his friends living in a tee house in a forest.

ha ha aloha! you are so urban!

mine know the whole ANATOMY of where meat comes from. ds1 announced the other day as he was gnawing a drumstick "this chicken has much fatter legs than any of our chickens do".

they are also very keen on the idea of buying a piglet and chopping its head off and making sausages out of it several months later.

heartless beasts.

conversation with ddq the other day, when we witnessed some pig carcasses being unloaded
"mummy, why has that dog got no skin on?"
errrrrr.....