Member-only story
White Packages in the Freezer
Time to Get Real
When my younger son was two years old, we lived on a two-acre property and on that property, we had a pigpen. We had brought the piglets home and put them in the pigpen. Everyday my son and I would go out and feed the pigs. We named them Ham and Bacon. Jon would help throw kitchen scraps into the pigs and the pigs would grunt and devour the food we brought to them.
One day, a man with a truck came, and let a ramp out of the truck and led the pigs up into the truck to go for a ride. Jon and I waved at the pigs as they disappeared into the box of the truck. The man closed the door on the side of the truck and then drove away. I never said another word about the pigs and their “ride”.
About a week later I came home from town and had in the back seat of my car some white packages. Jon helped he get the white packages out of the back seat and helped me put them into the freezer. I thanked the little guy and closed the freezer.
About six months later, Jon came to me and asked me where the pigs went and I told him, “You know those white packages you helped me put in the freezer.”
The boy looked horrified. “No, Mommy, no!”
He understood that he had been eating those pigs that he had been taking care of. Kids are a lot smarter than we realize.