What age do you let kids help butcher?

[dawg]

Ok, all. We are getting ready to butcher hogs. We kill, skin and gut on one day, chill over night and process the next. My older kids would come out and help process but my wife didn’t want them out helping on skinning and gutting day. My youngest is 8 and has asked to go with me the next time I butcher and I’m okay with it. My wife has said no. So, what age do you let your kids see the kill day activities? and not just the cutting of big pieces of meat into little pieces. I grew up seeing/helping butcher even on kill day. My wife grew up in the city and has never helped on kill day. She thinks it will be too traumatic. My 8
Y/O can come help on processing day. Thoughts?

[WVTim]

dawg I think they are old enough to help when they are able to want to help. It’s only traumatic if they aren’t exposed to it at all and grow up not knowing it’s a natural process to get food. Kids are pretty interested in the process. Try the same thing with teens or young adults they don’t handle it as well.

[sjhuntingfool]

I have made it a point to take mine since they were out of diapers.

[Dwain Erhart]

My kids had to help starting at 10 Years old. They all wanted to start hunting at 11 - legal in Montana. So they helped and learned. When they harvested a deer or antelope the next year, they field dressed their own with direction from me and helped to finish the process when we got home.

[mhighland69]

Dawg, in my opinion your child will let you know when he/she is ready to participate. My son will be 33 yrs. old in May, I started taking him to the deer blind, dove field, etc. when he was 3 yrs. old just to watch, listen, and learn. When I harvested game be it deer, waterfowl, dove, etc. he wanted to be part of the next step which was cleaning the game and whatever that entailed. I did not push him or force him to participate and by not doing so he had no problems transitioning when it was time to slaughter our beef, chickens, etc. I’m proud to say as my son’s dad he now has his own homestead where he raises a few cattle, chickens, etc. and he does his own processing, packaging, etc. As far as being traumatic, kill day cannot be any worse or traumatic than what we see happing to our country on a daily basis. BEST OF LUCK, AN GOOD PROCESSING!!!

[gus4416]

I started watching my grandfather butcher pigs when I was in kindergarten

[Ken1261]

My oldest grandson started when he was around 5. He was involved in the processing of deer, all the way to grinding and packaging. He’s 15 now and the video games have took over. Get them involved and try to keep them involved.

[Departing Contestant]

Nothing wrong with letting them watch. Grinding an edge down and letting the “bone”

[sjhark]

8-10 is about right, depending on your kids. Let them see how life really works, and let them process what they’ve watched. If you don’t tell them they’re traumatized victims for what they’ve seen, they won’t think they are and will be better able to cope with things, even if they do think it’s icky. Talk them through what they’ve seen so they better understand.

[Deepwoodsbutcher]

dawg I helped my dad dress a hunted rabbit around that age. I knew where food came from at a very young age. As a preschooler I told someone my favorite animal was a a cow, and it was also my favorite food. My mom had cookbooks with detailed photos of field butchery and I read them with great interest. Seeing these things were not traumatic for me at all. It also didn’t desensitize me to the seriousness of taking life. On the other hand, I’ve seen how people that wait until adulthood to experience the process often feel more uneasy. As with most things in life, children have a way of learning and excepting things without preconceived notions. Early exposure to many experiances only makes for more well rounded and curious individuals imo.

[dawg]

Thank you all for your input. I agree. Now to convince my wife it’s okay.

[mrobisr]

dawg We have introduced our little ones to harvest at whatever age we did the kill and processing. Never thought about age, if we needed to process then we all participated and seen the process. We consider it as a part of life and since it is necessary for life on this planet the process is just as natural as death and therefore should not be avoided.

[WVTim]

dawg good luck

[bocephus]

dawg I think you should probably listen to your wife to keep the peace and next year maybe work up to it.

[dawg]

bocephus
You are probably right.

[Ridley Acres]

There are a lot of variables here. I think it depends alot on what your kids are exposed to. We have a small homestead, and have had pet fish, parakeets, dog, as well as livestock die over the years. Rather than replacing them and hoping the kid doesn’t notice, we use it as a learning opportunity, because the fact is that mortality is reality. For us, our kids are intimately involved in the processing of our hogs for the past 2 years.

My 7 yr old skinned nearly half a hog with a paring knife this winter. But we are comfortable with his use of a knife. It hasn’t always been like that tho. When he was 5 he got 5 stitches by pulling a brand new fillet knife out of the sheath to grandpa while we were out fishing. Since then he has a safe respect for knives. So he got a multi tool for Christmas. My wife is more nervous about him feeding meat into the grinder than skinning.

All that to say, start as early as both you and your spouse are comfortably in agreement with.

[cdavis]

dawg I say start them as soon as possible or that yall can agree on my kids have been using knives since they were 3 and skinning and processing deer fish chickens and other animals since age 4. Now they’re 12 and 13 and I hardly get to touch a knife unless they’re in school. They understand where our food comes from and they embrace it. Good luck.
Just had to share a few photos. I’m so proud of these two kids. And believe it or not they love to make sausage.

[cdavis]

mrobisr said in What age do you let kids help butcher?:

dawg We have introduced our little ones to harvest at whatever age we did the kill and processing. Never thought about age, if we needed to process then we all participated and seen the process. We consider it as a part of life and since it is necessary for life on this planet the process is just as natural as death and therefore should not be avoided.

Very well said. That’s how we went about it. Never thought about age.

[Deepwoodsbutcher]

cdavis nice to see kids showing an interest in the reality of food production. Great job!

[calldoctoday]

cdavis 10 thumbs up. These days they keep denying kids this & that & trying to fill them up with pills, etc. All they really need is a little time on the farm to work some of that energy off in a constructive environment.