If you're vegetarian and your partners not - what do your DC eat?

[FuzzyLeaf]

I'm veggie and my partner's not, it came up the other day what we would feed our children (none yet), we couldn't come to a conclusion and I'm interested in what other people have done in regards to diet!

What do your kids eat?
How did you decide that or did they decide for themselves?
How did you explain eating meat vs not eating meat in a non biased way?

Same situation as you...I'm veg, partner's not, no kids.

I would feed our children meat as I think it's a choice for them to make when they're old enough, rather than for me to instil from birth.

I'd be honest with them if they asked why I don't eat meat, but wouldn't try and influence them into it.

I’m veg, DH isn’t. DCs eat a good mix of food. I will let them choose their diet when they are old enough to understand why I don’t eat it (ethical/environmental). I make swaps where I can - for example I give them quorn nuggets instead of chicken and I’ll
always choose them a veggie pizza over meat! I’ll cook a roast dinner for them all and let them have a taste of what I’m having. I won’t be disappointed if they choose to eat meat as DH will never turn so I’m sticking cooking meat anyway!

My DH is a non meat eater but eats fish. Our DCs eat meat. We wanted them to choose for themselves when they could. They are now 9 and 11 and not looking like they will ever be veggies.

I am vegi, dh isn't.
Dc are vegi.
Older teens decided at secondary school to eat meat. I accept that.
Dh is df to youngest and agreed with having ds also vegi.
Older adult dc eat some meat and support the choice I made on their behalf as youngsters. No nagging about it!!

My DH is veggie. I'm a meat eater. We have 2 DCs one is a meat eater and the other has been veggie since aged about 4. They are both older teens now. We have always had this 50/50 family. We eat mainly veggie meals but sometimes I make a meat and veggie version. So I might make a veggie curry and add chicken to half of it. The veggie DC is big and strong and healthy. In fact I would say he is healthier than my meat eater DC although both are healthy. When veggie DC was young he had veggie versions of sausages and mince etc as thats what DH eats. I have never found it a problem to have veggies and meateaters in the family. Its not difficult.

Mine were omnivores, I often cooked veggie with a side dish of meat. Both now eat meat as adults, DD doesn’t eat red meat.
It’s a choice, DD had vegetarian and vegan friends from being a teenager and explored the arguments in depth before deciding to stick with fish and chicken with occasional ham. She’s a great cook and experiments with veggie recipes.
DS less complicated, he likes the taste. Both still buy from ethical sources though, so they eat less meat because of the expense.

My father was a vegetarian, my mother isn't. We had meat some days and not others. Sometimes she made meals we could all eat, sometimes he made his own food and we had meat, sometimes we all are the same (macaroni cheese quite often!) I think flexibility is the answer. I am 66 and having a veggie father was a bit odd when I was a child and he used to get veggie products from health food shops. There is so much more choice now a mix and match approach should be easy.

Bibidy but doesn’t that work the other way too? So your DP would be instilling his/her views from birth?

Dh and I are both veggie. Four kids, one is veggie, one is a meat eater, two are too young to choose so also eat meat.

The meat eaters will happily eat vegetarian versions of many meals, chillis, curries that sort of thing, so I will sometimes cook one vegetarian meal for everyone. However that's mostly for convenience, and I do also often cook two versions of an evening meal, one vegetarian one meat.

I’m vegetarian dh isn’t. If we are having something like lasagne we will have it made with soya mince for example, if we are eating meat and something then dh and the kids will eat that and I’ll substitute with veg alternative.

We Unimed and ahhed about whether dc should be vegetarian particularly because I have quite strong ethical beliefs regarding it. However, being honest, ds was so so so fussy that anything he’d eat was a bonus and I kind of forgot about ethics

Now they’re 11 & 7 and ds is massively fond of meat - he’d eat steak every day if he could. He’s also a massive animal lover which I don’t understand tbh!

Dd eats meat too and occasionally says she’s becoming vegetarian but never actually does. She’s less of an animal lover but I’d be surprised if she didn’t at least have a vegetarian ‘phase’. I became vegetarian of my own volition aged 8 so I’d definitely support her.

Morally, I struggle with buying meat and funding the meat industry and am not entirely comfortable that default should be eating meat and they can choose to become vegetarian. However, being totally honest, I took the easiest route and that’s why we are where we Are.

Thanks for all of the replies, lots of different views here!
I have no issues with children making their own decicions on their diet and wouldn't stop them trying something they wanted to. We're more undecided on what you feed them up until the point they can decide for themselves, I guess it just depends on what works in your household?

It makes no sense to say ‘feed them meat and let them choose for themselves when they’re older’ Because you’re then making the choice of meat for them. Feed them veggie and let them choose meat when they’re older.

Someone I know hugely criticises me ‘making’ my children veggie but can’t see the comparison about how we choose everything for our kids - diet (good/bad/vegan/meat/whatever), school, friends, toys, tv watching...literally everything!

I would see the ideal being that both parents would do 50% of the cooking and the DC would have a range of foods.

I'm vegetarian, DH wasn't; I did nearly all the cooking at home, and DH was happy to eat vegetarian at home. The DCs were born in a very heavily fish-eating country so our compromise was to bring them up pescetarian. They are now 20 and 15, and have both carried on being pescetarian by choice, though DD (15) has occasional leanings towards being vegan.

If they choose to become a meat eater they can alway binge and catch up!!
No taking away you gave them meat of they choose to be vegi later on!!

I'm vegetarian (chose to stop eating meat and fish aged 12 and never looked back) and DP isn't.

We have two DC now aged 6 and 9 and they have never eaten meat or fish. My approach is opposite from most on this thread in that I am bringing them up as vegetarians but am perfectly happy for them to decide otherwise now that they're older.

I'm vegetarian for ethical and environmental reasons. Whilst I would never pressure my children to share my beliefs, these things are really important to me and they have a decent understanding of why I'm vegetarian. I cook and prepare meat for my DP and others from time to time, and am not squeamish or judgmental about it.

We make so many other choices for our kids when they're tiny. I don't feel bad that I made this one. They are both healthy and well-fed. They have the opportunity never to have eaten meat or fish, which is something I would love to have had.

Neither of them have ever seemed tempted to try meat or fish. They are massive, passionate animal lovers and the idea of eating animals seems completely alien to them. DS did announce when he was about 2 that he'd like to try meat. I said "OK, what meat would you like to try?" and he said, "Ummmm, rabbit pie"..... We've had pet rabbits his whole life, but he'd been watching a lot of Peter Rabbit on TV . He decided against it though.

We all eat largely veggie at home. DP usually has something meaty in his sandwiches at work and always chooses meat or fish if we eat out.

BI

DD is a toddler at the moment but we all eat a mostly vegan diet at home (as in maybe one meal a week or fortnight with meat and we have hot lunches most of the time too). If we have things like burgers or sausages then dh has meat, DD gets offered both. She'll only eat meat in sausage and burger form though. Won't touch mince or ham or chicken or anything else, just sausages and burgers dh will make lunches in bulk occasionally involving meat for work but DD won't eat it.

I'm actually vegetarian but we eat a vegan diet as DD is allergic to dairy and eggs.

I am veggie dp isn’t.

Dc raised as vegetarian as I don’t cook meat. Dc both now vegan

As with all parental decisions, you do what you believe is best for your children, and their future.

Because of what's in meat, (and this is bound to be way worse after Brexit) because of what meat production does to the environment we leave for our children, and because of the horror most children feel when they realise that this food they've been eating came from frightening, hurting and killing lovely animals like moo cows and baa lambs, I would bring my kids up vegan.

I'm veggie, dh isn't, he eats meat from time to time out of the house but at home I cook veggie only. I am a rubbish cook though. Our 3 dc (21,20 and 16) eat veggie at home and ds eats meat when out or when he cooks for himself at uni.

Same situation. DC (9,6) weaned on houmous, lentil bake etc and v small amounts of meat, both voricious meat eaters. Never happier than when they have a plate of roast meat in front in them. We have veggie days in the week. I do cook meat, reluctantly. Stuff like meatballs (ready made) or sausages that requires little attention. I am trying to introduce a lot more veggie meals, I hate cooking meat, and cooking 2 meals, but the rest of the household are pretty adamant meat eaters.

I’m a meat eater the kids dad is a veggie. We gave the oldest a veggie diet until he was about 4 and asked to try meat. He eats a lot of fish and some white meat now- not much red or processed meat which works well. The youngest is nearly 2 and mostly gets what his brother is getting.

I think our children (if we ever have them) would be brought up on a mixture of what dh and I eat. It's mostly veggie unless it's easy to cook two things like sausages or pizza toppings. I don't think that children brought up veggie have that much of a choice later in life - dh for example was brought up vegetarian, and so will never eat meat because he was never given it as a child and so hates the smell, taste and texture as an adult. He's not actually vegetarian by choice due to ethical reasons for example. I however could choose not to eat meat if I wished.

Me not veggie, DH is. He wanted the kids to be veggie from day one but I wanted them to choose for themselves when they are old enough.

I said that if he wanted them to be veggie then he would have to do the bulk of the cooking (his diet is incredibly limited. He basically survives on veggie bacon, chips and jacket potatoes). His family are all super fussy eaters and I wanted the kids to try a wide range of foodstuffs and then decide for themselves. He didn't like the idea of doing all the cooking so I got to choose that they were meat eaters.

However, they only ever have good quality meat and I talk to the kids about why we only buy free range eggs/meat/organic. We also have at least 2-3 veggie meals a week because I enjoy veggie food too.

When he feeds them, they get tinned beans, tinned soup etc Most of the time I cook them foods from scratch so I'm glad we went with my option. They love vegetables, lentils etc but they also like chicken, beef, cod and tuna (not pork or lamb).

I've explained to the kids why Daddy chooses not to eat meat and they accept that. They are now 8 and 9.

Our children eat meat. Vegetarianism is something that my DH chose for ethical reasons. My ethical reasoning is different (although I don't eat it around him to support him). We don't want to impose our beliefs on our children. Instead we want our children to experience as much of life as possible and make their own decisions. Eating meat is a part of that.