TIFU by making my child vegetarian.

[u/CompetitionExtreme36]

I have a 6 year old son. We went to a fair a few months ago and there was a display of livestock that the public could pet.

Me, trying to be jolly, told him that he'd be eating them for dinner someday.

My son was shocked and asked me how was that possible. I told him that meat is made by killing animals and cooking them. He then asked me what all the meats were. I told him that it's chicken, beef, steak, sausages, salami and mutton.

Later that night at home, I noticed him seperating his dinner. He removed all the meat pieces from the rice and only ate the rice. My wife asked him what was wrong and he said he doesn't want to eat animals.

Thankfully, he's fine with milk and eggs. However, he continued refusing to eat any meat. A week passed and we went to the doctor. The doctor said that it's probably just a temporary phase and we should feed him vegetarian alternatives for the time being.

We now buy canned beans, lentils, greek yoghurt, olive oil, whey protein, soy nuggets and plant-based patties/sausages. We also order a cheese pizza for him.

It's been a few months now, and I've bought iron and B12 gummies for him. Even my wife and I are starting to go more vegetarian.

TL;DR: We went to a fair and there was a display where the crowd could pet livestock. I told my son he'd eat those animals soon, and he's a full blown vegetarian now.

[u/Various_Succotash_79]

Most kids do this at least once, I think it's part of learning empathy. He might stay vegetarian or not, just be supportive.

[u/[deleted] → u/Various_Succotash_79]

My cousin was once playing and giving food to one of his chickens, he seemed to really like the chicken and was even being affectionate with it. And then while he was feeding it he goes “yes… eat all the food, Christmas is coming” 💀

[u/damarius → u/[deleted]]

My wife and I were visiting family in Scotland. One of my cousins raises sheep, and my wife fell in love with one of his lambs. She asked what her name was and my cousin said "Mint jelly, Easter is coming". We aren't vegetarian let alone vegan, but my wife was not amused anyway.

[u/Gruesomegiggles → u/damarius]

As kids, we named all our livestock food names. We didn't have large herds, just a few animals at a time, and the names were often recycled. We raised Pork Chop, Bacon, and Sausage 3 years in a row. Hamburger took a little longer to get to butcher, so we only had a couple of them. Never named the chickens individually, as we had more of them, but we called them all Nuggets. I think it did disturb some people, but we were very aware of our food sources. You treated the animals well, but you didn't forget that what they were there for.

[u/Wide_Ball_7156 → u/Gruesomegiggles]

My mom raised chickens just for eggs, but my friends and I decided the chickens needed names. Nugget, Original Recipe, Crispy… there were others I can’t remember now. We thought we were hilarious. Mom wasn’t impressed.

[u/damarius → u/Gruesomegiggles]

Yes indeed. I worked on farms as a teen, and the animals were always well-treated but definitely not pets.

[u/plankton_lover → u/Gruesomegiggles]

My chickens were Nugget, Roast, Gravy, Potpie, Popcorn, Chow Mein, and KFC (he was a mean bugger of a rooster!).

[u/Gruesomegiggles → u/plankton_lover]

They sound adorable!

[u/mxzf → u/damarius]

We've got some extended family that named their cow "Patty". Names like that are a lot of fun.

[u/damarius → u/mxzf]

That's a shitty name, in the truest sense of the word1🙂

[u/mxzf → u/damarius]

In this case, the intention was less "shitty" and more "tasty on a bun".

[u/damarius → u/mxzf]

Sorry, my mind immediately went to "cow patty" and not "hamburger patty". My bad.

[u/RollForParadise → u/[deleted]]

LMFAO! That sounds like me when I was little. My parents are hunters. So every fall I knew we would have deer and fresh meat. In the spring time I would go with my dad to scope out the forest and we would see little baby dears running around and I would toss Garrett and apples around. I wasn’t naïve but it was still fun to see.

[u/novagirltl → u/[deleted]]

We used to have pigs on a little hobby farm growing up, and always called them pork related names like "Hamlet", "Baconator" etc 🤣

[u/_XenoChrist_ → u/novagirltl]

That's hilarious. Reminds me of when I visited Elwood dog farm and all the puppies had these clever names like "Pawd thai"!! Fun dogs and great ribs too.