The Day We Remembered the Story About the Chicken Head

So tonight at dinner, Katelyn was being her funny self and something she said made me remember one of my favorite dinner conversations from a few years ago. It was the summer of 2006 just a few months before she was going to turn four. We had just sat down to a nice dinner together. I had made a rotisserie chicken which I served without carving it first on a nice platter to make things look fancy. As soon as I sat down I realized we might be in trouble. Katelyn was a big fan of the movie "Chicken Run" at the time and had watched it on numerous occasions that summer. We checked it out from the library and that was her movie of choice during our drive to and from Boise (yes, we are those people that go to the library and check out DVD's sometimes in lieu of books). That's when it hit me that if she realized that the chicken she eats was theoretically the same as the chickens in her favorite movie, she might not eat anything with a face or a family ever again.

So I nervously watched her reaction as she surveyed the dinner table and saw the main course. She immediately had something to say... of course. The conversation went something like this:

Katelyn: (In a very wise and knowledgeable tone) "So do you know WHY they cut the head off of the chicken before we eat it?"

Me: (Silent... confused and bewildered that she already KNEW they cut off the head and that it never posed a problem before)

Me: (Still silent as I realize that she wasn't asking US why, she wanted to know if WE knew why, because apparently she had the answer and was about to share it with us)

Me: (finally, in a wanna-be brave and confident voice) "Why?"

Katelyn: "Because if they didn't cut off the head first, then it would turn around and try to bite you when you start to cut it up to eat it."

Me/Kyle: (trying not to fall off our chairs from laughter because we know that will make her mad) "That's right sweetie"

At that point, we proceeded with dinner and still to this day she's never said anything about not wanting to eat things that have a face, a family or that star in one of her favorite movies or shows. If our dinner conversation was that good when she was only three years old, imagine what we have in store for us.