[tomwed]

I don't remember exactly how old Tommy was but he was but he was pretty young. We were having dinner in the living room and watching cartoons. The chicken in the cartoon did something funny and Tommy said to me and the sibs "That's a funny chicken". Coincidentally, my wife walked in from the kitchen and asked Tommy if he would like another piece of chicken. He laughed and said "chicken". He looked at his plate and then looked at me, not smiling this time and asked "chicken?". I nodded. He was having a "soylent green" awakening and I felt like I betrayed him.

[graciegirl]

This is a stage all kids go through and good parenting can help. Too much of the wrong kind of discussion and understanding can lead them to be vegetarians.


I expect to get immediate replies on this post.

[RickeyD]

I don't remember if this happened to me or not but if it did I would have said the following..." Eat what we put in front of you or go to bed hungry" Carnivores can't be picky, parents should not offer choices.

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Actually, I think that human beings are omnivores.

[tomwed]

Originally Posted by RickeyD

I don't remember if this happened to me or not but if it did I would have said the following..." Eat what we put in front of you or go to bed hungry" Carnivores can't be picky, parents should not offer choices.

He wasn't challenging me. He isn't that kind of child. He just didn't know that the chicken on your plate was once a bird you see on a farm. And he was my oldest. So one year I'm telling him to believe in Santa and the Tooth Fairy and a few years later I'm looking like a liar. It's no big deal. The oldest one takes care of all that messy stuff by keeping the younger ones informed. In my opinion that's just one of the reasons their personalities differ.

[TrudyM]

My son when he started eating solids would not eat any meat product. He would spit it back out. Couldn't even get him to try meat until he was around 4 then only chicken and fish sticks with enough ketchup to drown it.
He didn't try new foods until he was in his 30's and then he ate sashimi before he ate steak. If it hadn't been for cheese he would have starved. My parents made me clean my plate even if I then threw up after (turns out I had food allergies). I just couldn't bring myself to do that.

[CFrance]

Originally Posted by TrudyM

My son when he started eating solids would not eat any meat product. He would spit it back out. Couldn't even get him to try meat until he was around 4 then only chicken and fish sticks with enough ketchup to drown it.
He didn't try new foods until he was in his 30's and then he ate sashimi before he ate steak. If it hadn't been for cheese he would have starved. My parents made me clean my plate even if I then threw up after (turns out I had food allergies). I just couldn't bring myself to do that.

Me neither. At each meal I put something healthy on the plate that I knew they would eat. I refused to make meal times a control battle. I remember gagging over certain foods (that I still won't eat today) because I was made to eat them. Joe The Beagle under the table helped with everything except beets.

As for my kids (42 & 37), they are more adventurous eaters than I am--sushimi, escargots, and the like.

My SIL wouldn't make her kids eat meat (they both hated it), and neither one of them eats meat to this day. Why you would force somebody to eat something they hate is beyond me.

[graciegirl]

We all have our views on raising children. I think they come to us with a lot of set programming and yet...... without us parents repeating the same thing over and over thousands of times, they could go down the old drain.


Parenting takes skill and patience and even when you screw up, nice kids emerge most of the time.


I have enjoyed watching the children of my good friends have children and they are doing it pretty much the same as their parents. The results seem to be very good.


I suspect that it isn't what we TELL our children, it is what we ARE, they become.

[2BNTV]

Children Learn What They Live
By Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D.


If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.
If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.
If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.
If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.
If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.
If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.
If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.
If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.
If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.
If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.
If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.

[manaboutown]

Our whole family loves red meat. My 45 year old daughter eats steak probably five meals per week. When I was a child I remember one of my aunts offering me horse meat for breakfast which I recall as being pretty tasty. Before I was even school age I used to help my grandmother pluck chickens after I watched her cut their heads off and they ran around before they fell. Farm life!

What I do remember about my children is letting my son who was probably about a year old at the time taste some hot green New Mexico chili. I thought he would turn red in the face and spit it out but he absolutely loved it. I gave him only a little more because I was concerned he would throw up but to this day he eats it frequently and he likes it HOT!

[rubicon]

Timely thread. I recently read that producers have gotten so good at breeding that they can increase bird size to 7-8 pounds in an astonishing amount of time. Remember when 3-4 pound chickens were the norm.

In this article goat meat which was the most consumed is now being overtaken with chicken as the global favorite.

Worldwide people look at any food source as a basis of nutrition. In some countries people spend half the day in search of decent drinking water. Yet we living in the western hemisphere argue about what we should or should not eat.

Tell that to people who are forced to forge in dumpsters

I am a moderation in all things kind of guy and very mindful of being fortunate to be born in a country of plenty.

As my Italian mother often said "If you spit at the heavens they will spit back"
count your blessings and past the fried chicken.

Personal Best Regards:

[rubicon]

Originally Posted by manaboutown

Our whole family loves red meat. My 45 year old daughter eats steak probably five meals per week. When I was a child I remember one of my aunts offering me horse meat for breakfast which I recall as being pretty tasty. Before I was even school age I used to help my grandmother pluck chickens after I watched her cut their heads off and they ran around before they fell. Farm life!

What I do remember about my children is letting my son who was probably about a year old at the time taste some hot green New Mexico chili. I thought he would turn red in the face and spit it out but he absolutely loved it. I could gave him only a little more because I was concerned he would throw up but to this day he eats it frequently and he likes it HOT!

manaboutown: I plucked many of chickens in my time and complained the entire time well at least until I sat at the table...what a fantastic cook my mother was a true gourmet. she could take the simplest ingredients and cook a meal fit for a king and queen and she sang beautiful songs the entire time

[tomwed]

Originally Posted by rubicon

manaboutown: I plucked many of chickens in my time and complained the entire time well at least until I sat at the table...what a fantastic cook my mother was a true gourmet. she could take the simplest ingredients and cook a meal fit for a king and queen and she sang beautiful songs the entire time

That's just it. When you live on a farm or have friends that are farmers you get a slice of life that is far more rich than when you live in the suburbs or city.

"What got me thinking was a new comedy named the Master of None. It is an American comedy television series, which was released for streaming on November 6, 2015 on Netflix.[1] The series was created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang, and stars Ansari in the lead role of Dev, a 30-year-old actor who attempts to make his way through life in New York City."

In the episode the stars are taking their immigrant parents to thank them for their sacrifices. The parents are very stiff and quiet. The one father was served chicken and in a daydream kind of scene he was thinking how when he was a little boy his playing with a chicken he was called into the house. His father handed him a knife and sent him to kill the chicken. That reminded me of Tommy sorting things out for himself at the dinner table.

Don't read into it. It was not a traumatic experience. It was just an observation on my part.

[Mikeod]

I still remember when I had that "Aha" moment. I was about 7 or 8 and we were invited to a friend's house for a cookout. I watched the husband grab a chicken from the pen and take it into the barn where he proceeded to take a hatchet and chop off the head. The headless bird raced around the yard for a bit, then fell to the ground. He did this to a second bird then hung them up. I couldn't eat any chicken that day. I've got over it since then, obviously.

But the memory always brings me back to a post I read when I lived in CA and was reading a thread about hunting. A poster made the comment that hunting was wrong and why don't those hunters just buy their meat at the supermarket where no animals are harmed. LOL!

[tomwed]

Originally Posted by Mikeod

I still remember when I had that "Aha" moment. I was about 7 or 8 and we were invited to a friend's house for a cookout. I watched the husband grab a chicken from the pen and take it into the barn where he proceeded to take a hatchet and chop off the head. The headless bird raced around the yard for a bit, then fell to the ground. He did this to a second bird then hung them up. I couldn't eat any chicken that day. I've got over it since then, obviously.

But the memory always brings me back to a post I read when I lived in CA and was reading a thread about hunting. A poster made the comment that hunting was wrong and why don't those hunters just buy their meat at the supermarket where no animals are harmed. LOL!

That's the name of it that I couldn't remember. "aha moment" Now, when I remember anything I use to know all the time, it's a "aha moment".