OK, I admit, the title is just a bad excuse to tell a story about my daughter Isabella. What can I say? This whole blog is one great excuse to tell stories about Isabella.
Anyway.
Back when the No Impact project first started, the then 18-month-old Bella and I made up a chant: “We’re vegetarians, we hate meat, we love cheese.”
I know, I know. Cheese has its problems, but Bella may be allergic to soy and we could get no locally-grown beans for protein and the doctor wanted Bella to eat dairy. So that was that.
But the point is Bella was a vegetarian. Then, last summer, she started to tell me she wanted to eat meat. I told her that she wasn’t old enough to make that decision, but that when she was, the choice would be hers to make.
“I’m old enough now,” she said.
“You’re, um, three,” I said.
A couple of weeks later, we watched a DVD of Bambi, and Bella wanted to know why the hunters killed Bambi’s mom. Great opportunity to turn her off the meat idea, I thought.
“They want to cut her up for the meat. Meat comes from dead animals.”
“I want to eat meat,” replied my bloodthirsty child.
“But honey, meat comes from dead animals.”
“Oh. Well, I want to eat dead animals.”
I changed the subject.
Finally, Thanksgiving came along. Bella was going to a little friend’s house and the friend would be eating turkey. I relented and said Bella could it eat, too.
So Bella gets a fork and lifts the turkey to her mouth, stops, smells it, and puts the fork down. She stuck to the mashed potatoes and the stuffing.
Want to know what she said to me later?
She said, “Daddy, I don’t want to eat meat.”
I guess she’s old enough to make decisions for herself after all. ;)
[This post was meant to be a funny story about me and Isabella–filled with irony. Judging by the comments, my writing didn’t make that clear. The idea that she is old enough to make her own decisions–based on the fact that she agrees with me–is intended as a joke. The idea that a parent wants their kid to agree with them–ie brainwash them–is also supposed to be a joke. My bad. Poor writing.]