So Daddy is going in the woods to shoot something? With a gun?
Yes. Maybe.
But...Bambi. Bambi's Mom. Why would he do that?
There weren't always supermarkets. That used to be how people would get food. The Daddies and Mommies would have to go into the woods and find it. Sometimes people didn't have money to buy things, and they could trade parts of the meat for things like flour or sugar.
(thinks for a bit)
So are we poor?
No. Why?
We usually go to Tobey's.*
Yes we do.
Will Daddy bring home the deer? Do I have to eat it?
No. He may bring home some part of the meat, but it will be small, and daddy will eat it. You can try some if you want to. (I can see he's thinking an entire dead deer carcass is going to be there the next time he opens the fridge)
Why is Daddy doing this?
Because he grew up doing this with his father.
Do I have to go kill deers when I get big?
Shit no.
*a mispronunciation of Sobey's, a chain store around here.
10 comments:
If he decides he wants to later on will you let him? If he does open the fridge one day soon and finds a deer[or even a moose] shivering in there he can invite him out to warm up and have a muffin...love that story...have you read it to him?
M -
Probably. I will be horrified, but...probably. I am really ticked that B just left me to explain this.
C is five and very into Disney and Bambi, so you can imagine how hard it was to explain this to him.
And I don't know that story! Details!
DH hunts (and fishes) too. It's a canadian thing you know... I grew up in a hunting village myself. A first nations village wouldn't you know... Kids grow up hunting. Noone worries about Bambi. Or actually, it would be the moose version of Bambi. I don't hunt myself, that's not my thing. But I'll cook it and eat it, if they clean it first. :)
My husband also hunts. He really enjoys it and it gets him some time with his dad, so I'm cool with it. As long as I a)don't have to go with them and b)don't have to clean it. I will even cook it, assuming he gets one this year!
Your children are being deprived!Please get to the library, posthaste and check out "If You Give a Moose a Muffin". The author is Laura something-or-other, and it is so funny...
Oh, same thing happened in our house when my youngest sister heard my father was going hunting (the man who had never killed an animal - it was with a couple of friends of his, etc). Little sister was five. She heard the words "Deer Hunting" and yelped "But you wouldn't kill a DADDY deer, would you?"
"No."
"Well, you CAN"T SHOOT A MOMMY DEER OR BABY DEER!"
"Ah, No."
"And you can't shoot somebody's grandpa deer!"
"No..."
Big Pause.
Then the light went off for the cherubic five year old.
"DADDY! Why don't you just go
SHOOT A CHICKEN!"
My father sighed, called to wish them well and unpacked his bags. And stayed home and played another 15 games of Uncle Wriggly or something. Forever redeeming himself for any wrongdoings of the past in my mother's heart.
Shooting, gutting, skinning and all that weird stuff "taking the teeth" is grisly to me. And my grandfather and uncles on my mother's side shot all our meat! I knew what was going on. But now? I couldn't do it! Well, if I were hungry...then all bets are off. There are plenty of hunters where we live. Necessary, too, as deer populations are out of control.
Molly - I went on-line and checked it out - the funny thing is we have If You Give a Pig A Pancake and If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, which are by the same author...
MsC - Shoot a chicken? How funny!
jeanne - (small voice) I like moose meat, actually. I also eat a lot of fish. And I don't think that beef comes packaged at the grocery store, either. Is that hypocritical? My son is at the age where all of his little toys and all of his tv shows and all of his games involve animals getting along. He is bewildered that his Daddy would want to go kill something, and I got stuck trying to explain it to him.
Erin - the last time he brought home venison, it stunk up the house so badly when he cooked it that even he said he wasn't going to do that again.
I don't think this is something B and I will ever agree on.
I too grew up with hunting, ok it was pheasant and grouse, as well as salmon and trout fishing and hunting has never bothered me. Mind you I don't think disney has brought out any films cutifying scottish birds yet!
and i don't like venison either (but i love veal)
No hunters here, but "If you give a moose a muffin" (or "Moof a muffin" as it is known around here) is one of the best in that series of books. Enjoy.
I did not grow up hunting, but I heard stories about my father hunting when he was younger. I hunt now because I like the meat. My children are OK with that, but we run a meat goat farm, so they have been raised with a little bit different perspective from most. They see that, as you said, beef doesn't start out in the little plastic packaged in the meat section. I like it this way for us - it feels more honest (NO criticism to anyone else intended!).
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