Raising Vegan Jedi

My little boy is 4 years old, and he asks more questions now about why we’re vegan. I point out other vegans to him so maybe we won't seem so weird, and he about had a fit of glee when he learned Weird Al was vegan. When we saw a car on the freeway with a Go Vegan bumpersticker, the kids both really wanted to see it and were thrilled that someone else is like us.

I was looking for a wallet at Target, and my little boy kept finding gaudy bright pink and lime green leather ones, and I kept telling him that they were leather, so I didn’t want them. He asked what leather was, and I told him it was cow skin that they treat with chemicals to keep it from rotting. Well, you could have knocked him over with a feather. His big blue eyes were all wide and horrified.

“Why do they make things out of cows?” he kind of squeaked.

I explained that it’s how it has been for a long time, and that they use the skin of the cows they eat. He looked like he was about to cry, so I told him that the cows were already dead (I lied about live skinning to a 4 year old. Sue me.). He kind of moped around a little and I couldn’t distract him with Hello Kitty watches or the light-up pen in my purse. I asked him why he was sad, and we came back to the cows.

This was one of those parenting moments you try to deal with as best you can, but really, what’s the right answer? I told him that things will change, that when he is an old old man, the world will be a little different. And that by the time our great great great grandchildren are alive, that people will be nice to animals.

That cheered him up. A few weeks later, we were at Macy’s and there was this cube-chair thing made of different colors of cow hide with the fur on. My son asked what it was, and I told him it was cow fur. He backed away from it and wouldn’t touch it. He got that awful about-to-cry look and I tried to make it educational by showing him how some cows are black, some are white, some are brown. But he would have none of it. He said, “that’s disgusting” and off we went. I really had no rebuttal, because, yeah. Sewing chemical treated cow skin into a cube is disgusting.

His teacher says he’s happy about being vegan, which is good, because it would suck if he felt it was some miserable thing that we inflicted upon him. The teacher says he tells the other kids about being nice to animals, and I asked if he’s ever rude to them about their lunches or anything. No, she said. He liked telling about eating Tofurkey at Thanksgiving and how we left soy milk and vegan cookies for Santa (with 9 carrots for the reindeer).

After the leather incident, he asked about his shoes. I said they weren’t leather. They’re synthetic. He didn’t know what “synthetic” meant, so I said “uh, it means people-made” (as opposed to man-made since we want to be gender-inclusive here). He shook his head and whispered “no!” and looked like he was really upset. “What’s wrong honey?” I asked. His eyes started to tear up, and he said, “not made of people…people skin?”

I quickly explained that they were made of chemicals and plastics, and who knows what, smushed into shapes and cut and sewed into shoes. The little guy calmed down, and I felt so bad for him. Geez, thinking your shoes are made of human skin will screw with you.

We also have history lessons. At the library, there’s a display on the local Native Americans, and part of it is a rabbit skin. I told him what it was, and then explained that they had to eat rabbits and wear their skins to survive. They didn’t have the stores we do now. He only relaxed when I told him that we didn’t have to wear rabbits.

So I don’t know. Part of me is so proud of him. And part of me worries that my beautiful freaks will end up tortured by the suffering when they find out about it. My little girl just turned 3, and I know she’ll be asking questions soon enough. She has a vegetarian teacher who makes her vegan snacks, so that’s nice. This teacher also got T’was the Night Before Thanksgiving to read to the kids. It tells the story of kids who visit a turkey farm, discover that the turkeys will be killed, and smuggle the turkeys home to enjoy a veggie Thanksgiving.

Lessons in animal liberation in preschool - how can you not love it?