The kids have asked on numerous occasions if the meat we eat at dinner comes from an animal that died of natural causes or if it was killed to be our dinner.

This is one of those grey areas as parents where we generally fill our mouths with the meat in question so our answers are barely audible and we stare at the apple stuffed in the pig’s mouth sprawled across our table while we lie through our gristle-filled teeth, “I’m pretty sure the animals die of old age and then rather than just burying them, we eat them.” Head down, keep chewing.

Along the same vein, Ellie, Chloe and I went for a bike-ride yesterday and Ellie swerved to avoid a dead frog on the road.

Ellie: Mom!!! Watch out!!! There’s a dead frog on the road.

Me: Oh dear. That’s sad.

Ellie: Yeah, he was probably really old.

Me: Yes, um, that must be it.

Ellie: I guess frogs get really flat when they’re old. Mommy did you know frogs go totally flat when they’re old?

Me: Sure did honey, keep pedaling.

Ellie: And their eyes bug right out of their heads.

Where was that old Frogger cartridge when I needed it? It could explain so much.

Luckily when she explained to Hanna after school the miracle of life that is the flat-frog and still hadn’t connected the fact that the frog was in the middle of the road and had several distinct tire tracks across his back, Hanna was preoccupied with her own, eight year old drama.

Hanna: That’s great Ellie (brushing off her little sister), Mommy, when you really think about it, everything in the world glows in the dark.

Just keep chewing.