Her grandparents (from both sides) can get BARELY get over her love of dogs but when she says stuff like “oh cute little piggie” - it gets their blood boiling. I don’t care for it much either.
I try to avoid the Olivia on Nick Jr and read “Green Eggs and JAM”.
So this morning I had a talk with her about pigs not being clean or nice animals. But I think I left her more confused that anything.
Please help me to introduce the concepts of good animals and bad animals.
Honestly, I don't really see a problem and it's natural for kids to like all animals---especially mammals because they're the most like us. I mean, it's not like your girl is likely to grow up to be a pig farmer if you let her think that pigs are cute. Love of animals is a really nice way for kids to develop the qualities of mercy and compassion because they are often among the few beings that are weaker/more powerless than them... I don't believe that Islam teaches that certain animals are "bad"--the Prophet's companions hunted with dogs---just that certain animals are unclean for different purposes.
Obviously it is important for her to understand that as Muslims we don't eat pork, and that cleaning ourselves after contact with a dog/pig/unclean things is part of making wudu. She's getting to an age where she should be learning to pray, so you could just reinforce these ideas each time you practice wudu with her----"we do this before we pray, and we should also do it if we touch a dog or pig, etc., etc." She's also getting to an age where she will probably begin to have more exposure to non-Muslim kids her age, so making sure she begins to develop an awareness of what foods she can and can't eat and helping her to recognize risky situations is important...
She is too young to process what you are trying to get at. If you tell her that we muslims don't like pigs she'll just wonder why.
Now that my daughter is involved in Islamic studies, she understand so many things without me having to tell her. She is conscious of her values and responsibilities.
Yeah, I know. You can't really teach grandparents at their age but soften the effect of their chi chi chi in front of the kids. It's not like they are expressing their desire to eat a pig. A pig is just like any other animal. Infact, Islam teaches us to feed animals and respect their existence. It is perfectly in order to feed a dog and to even have a pet guard dog. The concept of najaasat will only register in a child's head when they are taight about wudhu and namaz, and 4 is still too young for the details.
I think people go way overboard with the paak/na-paak thing as it regards animals. My in-laws are completely disgusted by my two cats (who are extremely clean, lovely, well-behaved, loving, etc.) even after all the hadith I've given them speaking positively about cats. They are still convinced that the cats are not clean, even when I tell them that the prophet had a pet cat he was very fond of (which would seem to make having a cat sunnah, no?)
NYCGori - I am NOT an animal person myself. So I don't get the charm.
My hubby and daughter LOVE animals. She can't help it but she has to hug every dog on the street and it's okay with me as long as long as she washes up.
She is learning in Sunday School about halal and haram foods. We got that covered.
ah grandparents - I think in my dad's head pig automatically translates into "sooer" and baby pig translates into "sooer ki aulaad" - hence the problem :)
I think people go way overboard with the paak/na-paak thing as it regards animals. My in-laws are completely disgusted by my two cats (who are extremely clean, lovely, well-behaved, loving, etc.) even after all the hadith I've given them speaking positively about cats. They are still convinced that the cats are not clean, even when I tell them that the prophet had a pet cat he was very fond of (which would seem to make having a cat sunnah, no?)
I think it an animal thing - even if you had rabbits they would act like that.
I have to say I did love my hubby's cat. They are wonderful and very loving.
oh God njgal! ** I might give you a headache!** lol
My kids were the same too - they would treat "pig" the same as the rest of the animals obviously...
it's difficult to make your kid understand something, when we ourselves have not understood it fully.
Pigs are "outcast" in Islam and Judaism. But why? I never completely understood that.
That means God will never be merciful toward them? I don't Love pigs, but I wished they were not hated so much either =(
sorry, i am being a kid, same age as your kid lol
You can choose to ignore my arguement... i'm just blabbing today... :)
It's okay :) If you say "mommy mommy" before you every sentence then you might resemble my daughters.
I call her my husband's cat because the day that he brought her it was expected that he would be doing the poopy cleanup. But she was actually more fond of me.
im also confused about this whole pig issue. In his books/school etc my son also finds the pig cute..or at least easy name to say...he says piggie. My parents think it was REALLY wrong of me to buy him this Fisher Price Piggy bank...that is a pig character...
I seriously didn't even think about it when I got it, just though piggy bank, great way to teach...plus it had cool songs/numbers etc for learning......but my parents had made such a big deal out of it. It made me wonder if its really wrong. Not like I am feeding him pig??
^ That's a bit overboard imo, we aren't allowed to eat **pork but that's for **health reasons. Doesn't mean we can't get little piggy banks, draw pigs etc.
deeba i agree......i know eating pig is haram, but didnt think anything was wrong with playing stuffed piggy...hello piglet from pooh is so cuteee.....
^ AfroSheen - I thought it was a great idea to get piggy bank to save coins and money. Also to keep coins out of my little ones hands but dismissed the idea because getting lecture from other people.