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/EmberOnTheSea]

no cows are hurt or killed when making milk

You know that isn't true though, right?

The entire industry requires cows to be lactating, which requires pregnancy. Where do you think those baby cows go?

And the egg industry literally macerates male chicks.

I get this is outside the scope of a child's awareness but all adults should be aware of this.

I'm not a vegetarian but I don't lie to myself about where my food comes from.

[u/lunelily → u/EmberOnTheSea]

I’ll never forget seeing footage (example 1, example 2, example 3) inside a massive factory farm of a grinding machine that destroys the (unprofitable/useless) male chicks, and hearing their little peeps as they are crushed and dismembered alive.

[u/FallacyAwarenessBot → u/lunelily]

Wow. I'm not sure how I imagined that was done, but seeing how horrible and abrupt it is, is disturbing. It's insane to think how much death occurs on a daily basis.

[u/TheawesomeQ → u/FallacyAwarenessBot]

It's insane how unnecessary it is. Other countries ban this and simply check the sex of eggs before they even develop into chicks. But the US just keeps the shredders running. https://www.popsci.com/story/science/chick-culling-prevention-technology/

[u/levian_durai → u/TheawesomeQ]

A pretty literal example of r/OrphanCrushingMachine

[u/ByteSizedBit → u/TheawesomeQ]

Except I'm pretty sure we are still unable to sex a chick before it hatches?

[u/TheawesomeQ → u/ByteSizedBit]

We can, and it is already done commercially in Germany, Italy, etc. This culling is banned there and they use these techniques instead. Read the article please if you want to know more.

[u/ByteSizedBit → u/TheawesomeQ]

Just read it. Honestly not surprised the US is ignoring an already developed solution. I feel the issue could easily have pressure applied with the spread of bird flu to other species. The practices involved in the egg/chicken industry can't be helping the spread of it :/

[u/Rejusu → u/ByteSizedBit]

The US also doesn't vaccinate against salmonella.

[u/ByteSizedBit → u/Rejusu]

Huh, I didn't even know that was a thing

[u/Rejusu → u/ByteSizedBit]

Yup, it's why Americans get funny when they see people from other countries eating raw egg. They don't realise that it's relatively safe compared to their own eggs.

[u/Pittsbirds → u/ByteSizedBit]

We can just not eat eggs

[u/ByteSizedBit → u/Pittsbirds]

I'm not saying we should eat eggs, just pointing out that we can't sex chicks before they hatch, as the person I commented on said

[u/mortalomena → u/TheawesomeQ]

Yea gotta get stuff to make nuggets from.