As I was admiring a lemon garlic pepper chicken dish that I had prepared, Gigi asks, "What do they do? Do they just kill the chicken and chop them up into pieces so we can have food?" I ignored the question and pretended that I didn't hear her. Being the precocious child that she is, she asks again and I ignored her again. I was not ready to answer the question. So she asked a third time, a little louder and little more firm. I knew could no longer ignore her and I didn't want her younger sister to hear. I had to answer but how do you explain the food chain? I was stumped and a little in shock. I was nervous, and I could hardly breathe. As I look back I think was afraid that I didn't know how to answer as oppose to just answering her question. I wanted to take care and not hurt her feeling and to give her the best answer.
As I turned around and looked into those big beautiful eyes, I opted for the truth. I said "Yes. that what they kind of do." Nearly in tears, she asked "Why?" The only answer this MiMi had was so that we can have food. She said isn't it wrong to hurt animals?" and "That's so sad, that's so sad." Now I am feeling bad because she's feeling bad. She said. "I don't think I will be eating chicken anymore." I said OK. We opted for salad for dinner.
I opted for the truth because I felt like Gigi needed to know the truth about where meat comes from and like the well-read person I am I went in search of books to help me explain further. This got me to thinking about how much we should tell children about food sources. How do you talk to your kids or grand kids about the food chain?
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