I follow my kid's lead. He's 3½ and he asked to watch the instructional videos on YouTube when I was learning how to home-kill chickens.
He watched when a friend of mine euthanased our rooster who had lost an eye in a fight, was fascinated by the scalding process, decided he did not want to be involved in the plucking, cleaning, butchering, cooking, or eating.
I am reading a book on the effects on children of violence and violent themes in media and the numbers seem to indicate that if it's too distressing they will avoid the situation (hide their eyes, run away) etc.
My focus is that I would rather have happy meat, that lived it's life like a chicken, and was dispatched in a quick and clean way by someone who cares about the bird's welfare,
than utterly anonymous meat from birds that have lived their life in a box.
In my parenting I believe that children should be treated honestly and their curiosities should be acted on if ever practicable. As a parent it's my job to prepare them emotionally and talk them through the values associated with the decisions that we are making.
He watched when a friend of mine euthanased our rooster who had lost an eye in a fight, was fascinated by the scalding process, decided he did not want to be involved in the plucking, cleaning, butchering, cooking, or eating.
I am reading a book on the effects on children of violence and violent themes in media and the numbers seem to indicate that if it's too distressing they will avoid the situation (hide their eyes, run away) etc.
My focus is that I would rather have happy meat, that lived it's life like a chicken, and was dispatched in a quick and clean way by someone who cares about the bird's welfare,
than utterly anonymous meat from birds that have lived their life in a box.
In my parenting I believe that children should be treated honestly and their curiosities should be acted on if ever practicable. As a parent it's my job to prepare them emotionally and talk them through the values associated with the decisions that we are making.
