Just about everybody that I know who is raising kids vegetarian or vegan says that, around kindergarten age, they all go through a vegan evangelist phase. Frequently leading to things like a five-year-old announcing at Thanksgiving dinner, "Grandpa, you shouldn't eat that, because it's a dead bird, and birds deserve to live because animals are our friends."
Huh.
I briefly dated a woman who had a vegetarian daughter. I think the daughter was about 5 or so when she asked her mom what a vegetarian was. When her mom told her, she said, "I'm a vegetarian." Interesting that it can happen at such a young age.
Growing up on a farm, I learned that connection pretty early
Yup, it doesn't take long seeing a picture of your neighbor with her calf and the blue ribbon she won at the county fair over the meat case in the supermarket to get the connection.
Plus cows like to step on people's feet and stand there. You can see the sadistic gleam in their eyes.
I also know several people with vegan kids who have had to deal with "Your kid told my kid where meat comes from, and now my kid won't eat dinner!" phone calls from the parents of kindergarten and first grade classmates.
My mother credits her preference for chicken to the fact she had to collect eggs from some really obnoxious hens. They used to attack her. She was happy to see them turned into dinner.
My mother is the sweetest, most mild-mannered, non-grudgy person ever. So this cracks me up.
In retrospect, perhaps I just resented the cows because I had to do chores every day starting at age 7-ish.
I was hoping chickens would stop being evil now that I don't eat them. No such luck. And if I kill one in self defense I just might eat it.
My mother credits her preference for chicken to the fact she had to collect eggs from some really obnoxious hens. They used to attack her.
I've always suspected this about chickens.
I remember reading about a Jewish food and ethics conference a few years ago where a speaker asked the crowd, "Who here eats meat, but would not kill an animal yourself?" and "Who here is a vegetarian, but would eat meat if you'd killed the animal yourself?" and a good number of people stood up for each.
He's also getting kind of obsessive about people and dying. Not sure where all this is coming from or how to handle it.
Ellie went through a phase like this a few months ago. She's 4.5. I have no dea what started it but both my mom (a teacher) and her teacher told me that it's age appropriate. She still will ask me out of the blue about where she will lve when I die, if we can get a cat when our dogs die, and so on.
