Should I be worried about my son?

First of all, he is 5 1/2 years old, and just started kindergarten this year.

We were eating chicken for dinner (the expensive Whole Foods variety). We were talking about where food comes from generally, and he says "They had to kill the chicken right?"
"Yes," I reply.
"How did they kill it?" He asks. I don't really know how they kill chickens. I figure they probably decpitate them or something.
"Probably chop their heads off," I respond. Perhaps too graphic on my part. His response?
"Hahahahahaha" He laughs and giggles.

My wife and I give each other a somewhat surprised, alarmed look.

Eeeek!

He's actually very sensitive and kind and I'm not really worried about him, but some response eh? I figure in his mind that image fell into the slapstick type humor that 5 year olds find so funny, and not really comprehending it.

Especially if it is information that they really aren't ready for or can't quite handle.

there's no telling what the image in his head was. It most certainly wasn't anything close to reality, as a 5-year-old would have no schema for a real bloody, headless chicken.

If he's kind towards animals normally, I wouldn't worry about it at all.

:kidding:

It's not real to a kid that hasn't been taught or exposed to it.

He probably shouldn't hear (at that age) how chickens are actually slaughtered. It's not decapitation. I'll leave it there.

the chickens on a field trip. We figured she didn't need to know it was a one way field trip.

We'll get BabyMidlo up to speed real quick.

I'll ask PETA to drop ship a couple hundred pounds of literature.

:evilgrin:

those chickens were heading for a one way trip to the supermarket, she would have fainted dead away.

I'm trying to convert the family over to less meat and more veggies. Up to three meatless meals a week for dinner. It's hard work, though. Especially with BoyMidlo. He's not very interested in trying new foods.

It's funny how differnt they are, but then my son has Asperger's Syndrome, and he looks at things very differently--much more dispassionately, and with less empathy. My daughter gets very upset at the idea of any harm coming to any animal, or person for that matter.

dropped anvils on my head regularly when I was young. Believe you me, I never laughed at Wile E. Coyote.

:spray:

a picture of my bedroom door on the wall and tell me there was a pony in my room.

if you hadn't gotten brain damage from the anvil dropping first? :P

He'd have to be a fool not to take them up on it.

Your actions teach him that you don't expect a compassionate response, and he has to fill in with something else. Being five and a boy, he defaults to playground bravado.

If you expect a more compassionate response, model one.

(They usually bleed them out with their heads in funnels, or use gas.)

But in the hundreds of interactions I have with my children day in and day out, I will occasionally fall short. On the other hand, I don't want my son to think that chickens grow on trees. Eventually we'll be taking our kids to the farm where most of our meat comes from. It's a local farm that uses humane methods and they invite customers to check out the operations.

If anyone happens to live in the Raleigh area, check 'em out:
http://www.freedomfarmdexters.com/

Never seen them before, thanks for sharing. :hI;

They have a stall at the Farmer's Market in Raleigh. Nice folks.

Huzzah!

When do you not lecture people? I mush have skipped that day.

niiiiiice.

logical disconnect much?

Right before I read my older son "Goodnight Moon," we grab our cleavers, make our way out to the shed, select a couple of hens who aren't not pulling her weight, and chop! chop! Then we laugh as they scamper about the yard.

I recall that my great grandmother died when I was around six years old, and I don't really think my reaction at the time was particularly... sensitive. In fact it was insensitive enough that I rather shudder to think about it now.

having a dog will also teach him to love animals. I guess a cat would also work..Hehe

But he's fine with the cat. :-)

and decapitation.

it's not just kids. :O

Is not a great source of appropriate reactions to death and mayhem.

That's high-larious!

:rofl:

Not at that age, anyway. you probably remember seeing cartoons where characters are chopped into slices, and then reassemble on their own. Maybe he had a similar image. I would just chalk it up to his being 5 years old, unless this becomes a continuing trend.

Until he starts gleefully decapitating bugs. Then again, I think all boys do that too at some point too.
:think:

and she turned out... err... close to okay. :P

then it's time to worry.

I did. And now I feed them.

But I was a bad shot, and I don't do that anymore.

And I still swat mosquitoes and flies. I'm probably a very bad Buddhist, but I don't like critters that spread disease.

Spiders get a pass, though. I think they're cool.

"Amma's dead. She's a goner. She's kicked the bucket."

I was very taken aback by this, but after a while I just figured it was the only way he could process it. His brother, older by two years, handled it differently and kept insisting it was his great grandmother and not his grandmother who died.

On a chicken note, my older kid loves chicken nuggets. Someone dumped a rooster and hen in a woodland preserve down the road from us a couple summers back and the birds ended up in our yard. He and I talked about whether or not having them around would make it hard for him to eat the nuggets anymore, and he said "Nah. As long as I don't know them..."

Kids are interesting, eh? :)

I get a kick from them every day for this reason.

(after a long illness), he asked "Who shot him?"

:)
rocknation

I'm so sorry for you, but..... that's just really funny! Shit.... it's totally not ok to laugh, but that one got me. Kids are just nuts some times. At party this summer my friends' 8 or 9 year old son ran up behind my girlfriend and I (we used to babysit him, and he knows us really well) and said, "I didn't you know two were married!". This was because he found out we were sleeping in the same bed in our friend's house where the party was (because we were there from out of town). I still remember (and about the only thing I remember about my grandma's funeral) when I was about 3 going to my grand mother's funeral and some old woman lifting me up to look into the casket - what I remember is that I thought she looked like George Washington.... you know, white whig, painted rosy cheeks - I'm a little bit afraid that I told people as much.

and we laugh about it to this day!

:headbang:
rocknation

I actually thought it was kinda funny too.

At his age, I think it's better to judge how he interacts with people and animals instead of what he finds humorous. Right now he's learning to ask questions without fear of punishment or judgement from his parents so I think you handled it very well.

If there are times when his slapstick humor goes too far for your comfort, just ask him the leading quesions needed for him to come to the conclusion on his own that XYZ is hurtful and/or sad.

That's pretty much how I see it. I want to be honest with him, but my response could have been a bit more, shall we say, edifying.

so it seems funny, death isn't something he understands and the idea of cutting a head off would sound funny to him.

I wouldn't worry about him unless he starts torturing animals, starting fires, and wetting the bed.

Well maybe a few things in between.

I'm still trying to figure that out.

Why can't parents tell their children "No sonny, they've got it wrong. Chickens grow on trees and people love to pluck 'em off the branches."

On second thought, that might be deemed too traumatic too...

Redstone

Like "Hoboken" or "kumquats".

Loves to eat them mousies,
Mousies what I loves to eat.
Bites they little heads off,
Nibble on they tiny feet.

At least he knew to ask if they had to kill it, and was able to make a connection between the bird and what he's eating - that's probably more important than him not thinking about it at all. I've always eaten meat, and I spent a lot of time growing up on a farm. I never wanted to see how the animals were killed though.... it was just gross - and I got mad when they had to sell of the bulls (it was a dairy farm) - they could have stayed and been my friends, which they kind of were, because we'd feed them and pet them.... but cows are really really dumb, so I don't care too much, and chickens make cows look like geniuses.

and playing "war" with hurled "bricks."

your child is probably just fine . . .

Its better that you and him dont know HOW it is done.

Trust me, my grandad had a farm. If its not part of your life, you are better off not knowing. Lets just say it makes animal sacrifice look like a Disney cartoon.

Knowing about that could make you be a vegetarian... if you like meat, its better to be ignorant.

And he probably has a cartoon idea of it, like other posters have said. Thats fine, and if he wants to know when he is older, and if you have the stomach for it, you guys can always go visit a farm.

but not you :)

Seriously though, if he has that sort of curiosity see if you can find a local farm that raises and sells chickens and let him see how it's done. It's a good thing for everyone, and particularly for kids to learn, where their food comes from and how it gets to them.

I don't actually want him to be disconnected to how food gets to our table. And I want to understand good agricultural practices from bad one.