The Mom's Book of Worries

There have been debates about the evolution of man and life on Earth for as long as there has been language. I'm not choosing to enter a debate on the matter, but I am constantly plagued with the worry over keeping my kid's healthy and safe from early death, so I find myself thinking of chickens an awful lot lately.

From the time my son could keep down solid food it has been a struggle to get him to eat meat. I was constantly monitoring his diet and worried about the amount of protein he was getting. I was practically force feeding him milk to make up the difference.

Then I read up on what a chicken really is now. It's not just McDonalds switching chicken nuggets to actual chicken meat, it goes way beyond that. For years we have been told that chicken is better for you and to eat more. But that isn't a chicken. It's a deformed mutant that could never be reproduced without a lab tech. Yep! All the chicken you get in restaurants and grocery stores is test tube created and kept alive long enough to slaughter with antibiotics and plumped up with hormones.

These hormones are causing girls to go through puberty much too young, children to have exotic diseases that are hard to diagnose and treat. And the antibiotic use is leading to resistent strains of viruses that have the potential to not just keep our kids sick longer, but even kill like the Spanish Flu in worldwide fatalities. This is the makings of horror/thriller stuff!

Many articles warn about keeping chickens or even allowing your child to hold/pet a chicken at carnivals and petting zoos. Some reasoning is:

Roxarsone is used in many different chicken feeds in order to prevent the birds from contracting parasitic diseases. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows the additive because it is the natural variety of arsenic and thought to be less dangerous. However, roxarsone may be more dangerous than previously thought, judging by the high levels of arsenic poisoning in these two Utah children.

So we poison the chicken to keep it healthy? And then wonder why people get sick that eat it's flesh? And what about the veggies that are grown in the soil that has been fertilized with chicken droppings?!

I've gone from trying to get my son to eat more meat to absolutely discouraging anyone I know to ever eat meat or dairy ever again. That is my informed and medical decision. My kid's health is my utmost concern! But I can't do it without help! I need the factory farming industry and USDA to stop spreading lies, poison, antibiotics and contaminated products. And to get their attention, I need EVERY household to start making better choices and refuse to eat meat until it is safe.

If you can't raise it and kill it correctly, then don't do it at all! And if you can't find someone who does this for you, then don't buy/eat it! Because as long as you continue this lifestyle, you are contributing to the development of super viruses, pandemics, and putting my children and yours at risk. (Not to mention paying out the nose for medical treatments to correct the health problems it is causing for you too!!)

I vividly remember the chants we recited without fully understanding as children. "Liar, Liar... Cinderella dressed in yellow... Cross my Heart..."

Honestly that last one was a bit hard for me to say. I did not want to visualize a needle in my eye or worse, hope to die! Although the original is much longer and speaks of breaking a promise to save a friend even if it means loosing the friendship, it is not on my list of favs.

But I find myself thinking about it as my son transitions from his first school to his new Kindergarten. It was a long few weeks and I was worried that I had made a terrible blunder in moving him a few months after the school year, but there was nothing else to do. So I had to make it up to him. I had to motivate him to do his best in school. I had to encourage new friendships.

So I promised him a guinea pig.

That is surely what you were expecting!? We made a vow as a family that if he could go a whole week following directions, completing his work on time, and keeping his 'light on green' at school, he could have a guinea pig.

Well the first week didn't go so hot and I was starting to seriously doubt my instincts, but by the third week he was sailing. He ended the early week on yellow, and had to start over. He kept trying. He chose a name and a color pattern, and would light up whenever he told anyone who would listen about his guinea pig.

And so Jeffrey is fat, fluffy and already attached to his new friend. They were inseparable today and they are even cozyed up under the same blanket! Do I stash him away or see how the first night goes?