Heavy topics

As Jack gets older and more sophisticated, he has been having a lot of questions about the world around him. We've been having a lot of heavy conversations lately.

It first started when we introduced the concept of germs to him, right around the time we had the scare from the dentist that he might have a couple of cavities. We told him that he had to make sure that he brushed and flossed his teeth really well at night so that the germs didn't come and give him cavities. That naturally evolved into a discussion about how germs make you sick. He didn't quite understand. He kept asking us, "Why do germs eat you? Why do germs eat your teeth?"

We tried to make the analogy that germs are like ants and our bodies are like our houses. Germs, like ants, are fine if they stay out of our bodies and our houses. It's only when there are too many germs inside our bodies that it becomes a problem. To that end, we want to make sure that we eat healthy foods; get lots of rest; and keep our hands, bodies, and teeth clean.

Right around this same time, Jack started also hearing about "bad guys" from his friends. He started talking about killing or beating bad guys. I don't love this type of play, but I tried to tell him that "bad guys" are things like germs and dirt that we want to keep away. Of course, then Jack started asking, "Can I hit germs? Can I cut germs?" He knows that germs are very small and that you can only see them with a microscope, so he also asked, "Can I hit the germs if I have a microscope?"

At his recent doctor's appointment, he had to get the flu shot. He didn't cry, but he was not happy about it. We told him that the shot was a way to put special soldiers in his body to fight off germs that could make him sick.

When I was growing up, my parents bought us a series of books that taught different values, like kindness and respect, as they related to the lives of famous people. The first book in the series was "The Value of Believing in Yourself: The Story of Louis Pasteur," which focuses on when Pasteur developed the rabies vaccine. We've been reading this book to Jack to help him understand about germs and vaccinations. It's been very helpful.

Another subject we finally discussed with him was what it means that we are vegetarians. Jack had started noticing that some of his friends would eat things that we wouldn't allow him to try, so we felt it was finally time to explain to him why we didn't want him to eat those chicken nuggets or hot dogs or beef jerky.

We tried to couch it in terms of "Different families have different rules" so as not to stigmatize the choices of other people. But we told him that we don't eat meat, because they are made out of animals and we don't want to eat animals. This didn't make an impression on Jack until I mentioned that "piggies" are some of the animals that are typically eaten. Then he was fully on board with being a vegetarian. He always ask, "Does that have meat in it?" when someone offers him something unfamiliar. He also asks me which of his friends eat meat and why do they eat meat, and he says that he wishes that they didn't. He told me that he will never eat meat. I suppose we'll see. I can just imagine him ordering a huge pastrami, roast beef, and turkey sandwich with bacon as an act of rebellion when he's a teenager.

We've also had a lot of conversations recently about God, heaven, and death, but that's a topic for another post.