Saturday, January 10, 2009

My Budding Vegetarian

Recently, Sven and Deb Jr. had a conversation which left him quite rattled.

Deb Jr. is 3, and we believe her to be a genius.  She is, I tell you.  However, even as accustomed as we are to her towering intellect, this conversation caught Sven off guard.

We had finished eating dinner, and Deb Jr. got on her daddy's lap.

"Daddy," she asked, "what did we eat for dinner tonight?"

"Turkey," he replied.

"Are turkeys animals?" she continued.

"Yes," he said, not really paying attention.

"Am I an animal?"  Sven's attention was caught now, and he began to think about his answers more carefully.

"Yes," he said.  "You're an animal, sort of."

"Are you going to eat me?" she asked.

"No," he said.

"Are puppies animals?" she queried, her forehead wrinkling.

"Yes," he answered warily.

"Do we eat puppies?"

"No, we don't eat puppies."

"Are elephants animals?"

"Yes."  Sven was patient, curious to see where this was going.  Deb Jr. took a long pause, clearly lost in thought.  Finally, the ultimate question emerged:

"Do elephants eat turkeys?"

"I don't think so," her daddy replied.  Deb Jr. nodded as though this answered all of her questions, then hopped down and went to bed.

She has only eaten chicken nuggets since then, as she is not convinced that they originate from animal sources.

Neither am I.

5 comments:

Kristina P. said...

Frankly, I'M not convinced chicken nuggets are from animal sources.

3 Bay B Chicks said...

As your post so clearly illustrates, your daughter IS a genius. Have you started the MENSA testing yet? It is really never too early.

A most excellent post, as always. :)

-Francesca

Jill @ Sneaky Momma said...

What a bright little girl!
How funny that she caught on that she was eating an animal. I don't blame her for only eating the questionable chicken nuggets. LOL

R Allen said...

I had a similar question from a kid who saw a farmer throwing leftovers to his pig. Do pigs eat pork?

YES.

Camille said...

OOOhh smart thing!