How kids handle knowledge of chicken processing

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

My room mates and I just processed chickens for the first time. My room mate's two children (ages 5 1/2 and 4) stayed in the house with my dog. We had been telling them what would happen and why since before the chicks arrived, but did not want the kids to witness anything traumatizing. We figured the best thing was to tell them the truth, and that it was ok to be sad.
After the event, their dad explained to them how it happened (they were curious, and we feel it is part of the grieving and growing process to learn about things like this).
He told them that we killed them, then put them in hot water, then cold water, then took off the feathers, then took out the insides, and then put them in the freezer.
The 4 year old then added, matter-of-factly, "and then they FROZE to death!"
So much for explaining.


Anyone else have stories on how kids cope?
We aren't sure, though they claim to want to help, when to let them. None of us were exactly farm kids, so we don't know quite what to do with them in regards to teaching them the harder things.

 

[Katy]

When I was your kids' ages my job on butchering day was to get the flapping/flopping chicken after my dad had chopped the head off and take it to my mom. I don't think they probably gave much thought to it if I'd be traumatized by it or not! It was just a part of life.

 

[:D chicken]

I heard a good explanation "They were raised to be eaten"

 

[PurpleChicken]

My son and I learned to process together starting when he was 6.
After a short time he could explain how and why we raise our own
chickens for food. He even culled a sick chick once on his own.

I've heard very similiar stories from other parents.

Kids are a lot smarter and tougher than we give them credit for.

 

[saddina]

They already know they're food animals, it's not going to be developmentally upsetting to them so long as you are comfortable with it. Once they get a little older they may become squiemish, but that seems to be part of the peer group conformity in action.

In other words, they're fine, if they want to watch/help let them, if you wait till they're old enough to have thier friends' opinions matter you'll have a whole new set of issues.

 

[AK-Bird-brain]

We go through it like a biology lesson. Explain it so they can understand but show them all the parts and tell them what they do.

 

[PotterWatch]

We gave my kids (ages 7 and 8) the option of staying to watch the first time we did it. We also told them that any time they felt uncomfortable, they could go inside. They were fascinated by the whole process. They wanted to know what all the parts of the innards were and why the birds continued to move after they were dead, etc. I had a friend bring her 5yo with her once as well and even though he is a very sensitive child (I never thought he would be ok with watching it all), he too was fascinated and watched the whole thing without any issue. I'm sure there are children who wouldn't be ok with it, but I haven't any kids like that around yet.

Edited to add: We did discuss the fact that we need to realize that the bird is losing their life so that we can eat. How we need to be careful to kill the bird in a humane fashion and then consume as much of the bird as we can to honor the fact that it died to be our food.

 

[mom'sfolly]

Kids seem to take the whole thing in stride if it explained and handled matter of factually. They just seem to get that to make this food you have to do this. Kids can even find some of it fascinating in a totally kid "that is so gross" kind of way. Additionally there is this gross thing that kids seem to love. I did as a kid. The coolest toy in the world comes from chicken slaughtering. A cut off chicken foot, with the tendon attached can be opened and closed with the tendon...pull the tendon and the foot moves.

 

[Rolsjo]

We just finished processing the rest of our meat birds this morning. Our kids (ages 7 and 8) were there the whole time and helped rinse off the meat. We explained to them before we even got the chickens that the meat birds are different and that they are only for food. That didn't stop the kids from getting attached to them. My DD would still pick them up to cuddle and thank them for being such good chickens and getting fat enough to feed us. On a side note, neither my DH nor I was raised on a farm and this was a first for us, as well.

My experience is that children react about as strongly as their parents. If you spend too much time preparing them for something that could be traumatic, they begin to expect it to be traumatic. Does that make sense? It's like a toddler that falls down and looks at Mom to see if she is upset, if she is, they cry, if not, they get up and toddle on. We tried to be very matter-of-fact about it and our kids did great.

 

[keystonepaul]

When my son was 5 1/2 years old he helped with the processing after I had dispatched the chickens but as for everything else he helped . We have a few birds that we've named and will keep till they die but he understands everything else is fair game- eaten, sold, given away, etc. He's had to deal with the death of two dogs since he turned six- the house dog who died at 19 years old and one of the hounds that died at 9.5 years old. It was a learning experience for sure- like to say it was a good learning experience, and it was in a lot of ways, just hard to use the term good connected to the death of a pet..... good luck with the butchering. Keystonepaul