The Great Vegetarian Experiment

Last week, we agreed that, if Josh wanted, he could try being a vegetarian on Friday. This is came about because he didn't want to eat his dinner said he didn't want to "kill animals."

So he woke up on Friday and was very excited about his "meat free" day.

But somehow, I'm not quite sure he gets the idea....

Me: "Josh, what do you want for breakfast? Cereal? Toast? Eggs?"

Josh: "How about bacon? Is that vegetarian?"

Um... no.

He settled for Fruit Loops and Fresh fruit salad.

About 10:00 he comes to me...

"Mom, can I have a turkey and pickle sandwich?"

Me: "Josh, that's not vegetarian, remember?"

Josh: "OOOHHHH! I only wanted to be vegetarian at breakfast, lunch and dinner... Not at snack time!"

In the end he settled for some pickles and some cheese.

He did have tuna at lunch time, and while I know that's not strictly vegetarian, there are a lot of vegetarians that eat fish so we let that slide. Sam did much better with a grilled cheese sandwich.

And then at dinner the boys had bean and cheese burritos. Josh told me he liked them better with meat.

So, I don't quite think he's ready to give up eating meat, but he did give it a good go.

At the end of the day we were talking about his vegetarian day. I asked him how he liked it.

Josh: "Mom, Vegetarians sure do get to eat good food!"

Me: "Yes, well, you don't have to be a vegetarian to eat vegetarian foods. If you want, we can do it once a week."

Josh: "Yeah, I think I could do it once a week..... Can I do it on the nights you have turkey for dinner?"

Um, no. But he gets points for trying.

A 7 Year Old's Dilemma

One of the things that is very important to Rich and me is teaching our kids about proper nutrition and eating well. We want to teach our children how to make good, healthy choices in food.

We do bring the kids to McD's or let them have special "treats" from time to time. But it's the exception rather than the rule. Moderation is the key.

Lately, everything Sam eats he asks if it is "healthy." It hasn't seemed to deter him from wanting chicken nuggets or the processed macaroni and cheese... but at least he's asking the questions.

So last night at dinner Josh was very curious about different foods and trying to avoid eating his fish asking all sorts of questions. His teacher last year was a vegetarian so he was curious about what that meant and why some people are vegetarians and some aren't.

Rich explained that some people don't eat meat for a variety of reasons, among them religion, diet and that some people object to killing and eating animals.

Josh then said he didn't like to kill animals and that he liked fruits and vegetables so maybe he could be a vegetarian. We told him if he wanted to try and be a veggie, that would be fine with us.

So we agreed that on Friday we'd have a "meat free" day to test it out and see how he likes it.

We started to explain that there were many types of vegetarians -- some that don't eat any animal by-product like milk and cheese (he didn't want to explore that) and some that will eat fish and eggs.

We explained that there are some people that aren't totally vegetarian, but make decisions not to eat some kinds of meat due to how animals are treated (like veal or only eating free-range chickens, etc...)

We told him he had to make a decision about what was important to him and then decide what he was willing to give up for his beliefs.

Josh then said, "Well, one thing I know I don't like is chicken!" Then he pointed at his food.

I said, "Well, that's fish Josh. And you don't like chicken nuggets?"

The look on his face was priceless.

I continued, "... and no more hamburgers or hot dogs. You wouldn't be able to eat at McDonald's anymore."

He said, "Oh. Maybe not then."

Thus ended his attempt to talk his way out of eating his dinner.