Vegetarian ? Do you intend to bring up your children as vegetarian also?

[KickingScreaming]

Or will you let them decide when they are old enough to make an informed choice themselves?

I've been a vegetarian since I was 8 and I'm 43 now. My kids are 6 & 8 and no I don't make them be vegetarian.

I do however make them aware eating meat daily isn't healthy and they need to eat vegetarian dishes a few times a week.

My husband grumbles about it but it's tough.

I have been vegetarian since my teens. My two DC were brought up pescatarian (compromise due to non-vegetarian father and where we were living) but now they are adults, one is vegetarian and one is vegan.

For me, being vegetarian is the default mode, and eating meat would have been a choice my DC could have made for themselves later on if they wanted, but I would not have felt ethically or personally comfortable with cooking it or feeding it to them.

Why on earth does he grumble? Is he one of those people who thinks that meat should feature in every meal?

@MrsBennetsPoorNerves yes he is

He feels a meal isn't a meal without meat. It works offshore and eats meat ever single meal . He would happily eat the same at home if I allowed it but seems I do all the cooking I try to make his life far more balanced and healthy

I don't get any thanks for it though

He not it*

I'm veggie (and OH) DC were fully veggie at home and school until end of primary school.
They were free to choose to eat meat when we were out or at others homes.
They are now teens and usually choose the meat options at school, always when out. We also have some meat at home for them (sandwich fillings, chicken for a Sunday dinner). But I don't let them have meat at home every day and try to avoid processed meat. All sausages are veggie at home etc. But I don't think there's much chance of them choosing to be vegetarian as adults at the moment.

I’m strict veggie and my DH isn’t. Neither of us are the default chef in the house so we all muck in and meat is very much on the menu, but my kids have grown up with an eclectic and varied diet. This includes a lot of veggie/ Mediterranean/ Indian vegetable dishes which are delicious and they wouldn’t bat an eyelid if a meal didn't include meat.

…Unlike other children’s parents after their children had come to tea at our house, they’d say ‘no meat? What on earth did you feed them?’ As if vegetarian food were some alien concept! 🙄

I'm vegetarian, have been for 16 years, none of my kids (8,6,2) are veggie. Neither is my husband. It will be my kids decision to wether they are vegetarians.

I don’t eat meant but I do give meat to my children. The reason is that my husband is not vegetarian. I don’t hide from them that I don’t eat meat because I don’t want to eat animals but I’ll be fine whatever they decide.

I became vegetarian because I didn’t like the taste or smell of meat. I only cook vegetarian food but was happy for my LO to eat whatever she fancied when out. My husband is a meat eater but eats vegetarian meals at home. Thankfully my LO, who is now 3, has always wanted to be vegetarian.

Funnily enough, before I was veggie I used to say if I was ever vegeterian I'd let the children choose to become veggie if they wanted when they were older. As if eating meat was the default!

Now I realise, its not the default. What child sees and animal and wants to eat it? I remember distinctly the horror of realising that bacon was a pig. I would never have chosen to eat meat if I'd known what it was.

I flit between vegan and veggie throighout the week and whilst I would allow kids some dairy/eggs on occasion the same as I do myself, there's no way I'd ever feed my kids meat. It's fucked up. We just never think about it because we were fed it and our parents were and it's just an awful cycle.

We don't need it. And children certainly shouldn't be fed it.

We’re both vegan for ethical reasons so we feed our young kids vegan food and imagine indeed that they’ll make their own choices when they’re old enough to make an informed choice.

At the moment they’re in a passionate vegan phase (preschool/ early primary age) but don’t really understand the issues but I imagine they’ll dabble with non vegan food as pre teens and teens and may decide to be vegetarians or omnivores. It’s not my decision.

Yes. DH and I have both been vegetarian since childhood, and have raised DS (now 15) vegetarian too. It would be out of the question for us to buy or prepare meat. If he does decide to eat meat when he's older, then that's up to him, but it won't be in my house or paid for with my money. His friends love the food I make them and never complain about the lack of meat when they're here.

Isn't climate change a big part of this also? It isn't actually ok to raise children to eat a lot of meat, as it's very extreme antisocial behaviour. I explain to my child that some people need to, that in some parts of the world it's the more sustainable option or there is no other option; also that not all vegetarian foods are ethically sourced. I hope that if he did choose to eat meat he'd make sure it was as sustainably and as ethically sourced as possible.

Bringing up a child to make an informed choice does not mean behaving irresponsibly as a default then leaving it to them to choose a more ethical path if it occurs to them later.

Personally, I find it weird when people justify giving their children meat on the basis that their children should be allowed to make that choice for themselves instead of having the choice imposed on them by parents.

I agree absolutely with the principle that children should be allowed to choose for themselves, but surely feeding them meat from an early age doesn't allow them to make that choice. Quite the contrary, you've made the choice for them that they will eat meat, at least until they are old enough to decide otherwise.

I feel that my dd has actually had much greater choice in this area because we didn't give her meat at home. We have always been abundantly clear that she was free to eat meat in school, at restaurants, friends' houses, with other family members etc. There was never any emotional pressure on her not to eat meat, as neither DH nor I have strong feelings about it either way - she was never taught that it was wrong to eat meat, and she had plenty of opportunitiesto try it. So I feel like she has had at least as much choice as anyone else has with regard to this matter.

Absolutely not. Am vegetarian, and my son loves meat.

I'm vegetarian since childhood, DP eats meat (mainly in packed lunches and if he goes out for a meal). Our DC are 11 and 13 and both vegetarian so far. They are both free to choose to start eating meat but neither has done yet.
My feeling is that choosing to offer meat and fish is just as much making a choice for your child as choosing not to. We make choices for our children all the time, based on what we feel is best for them and on our own morals/outlook/lifestyle – that's essentially what parenting is.
I personally would have liked to have been given the choice never to have eaten meat.

We are vegan and are raising our children vegan until they reach an age where they can choose. If they choose to eat meat at school or with friends then no judgement here, and we won't stop them eating it, but we probably wouldn't have it in the house.

I'm vegetarian and my children are not. If they'd been good eaters then yes, I would have been inclined to raise them as vegetarians. However, they're both fussy eaters so really I want to get whatever nutrients I can in to them. No matter what you think about meat, there's no denying it's very nutritious gram for gram. Also, there's a part of me that thinks they should be entitled to make their own decisions regarding vegetarianism.

Strange question, in my mind.

DH and I are vegetarian - why on earth would we feed our kids meat? Our kids are now grown up, we brought them up as veggie and they have stayed veggie.

You asked, "Do you intend to bring up your children as vegetarian also? Or will you let them decide when they are old enough to make an informed choice themselves?" Let me rephrase that for you:

"Do you intend to bring up your children as vegetarian also? Or will you let them decide when they are old enough to make an informed choice to eat meat?"

I've been vegetarian since age 16, now 54. DD was vegetarian from birth, but now pescatarian at 23.

Yes and no, they can decide when they are older. Their Dad eats meat though so we are a mixed household.

I'm veggie but let my very young children eat meat. They can make their own minds up later if they want to go veggie, vegan, or whatever (within reason, obv, they need to be healthy and that's still my responsibility). They "help" DP cook and they know where food comes from and are currently okay with it.

🙄 I don't pinch their noses and pour offal down their throats.

We all ate meat until the youngest was 3 or 4, then we gradually turned vegetarian. They can eat meat if they want of course. The kids are more vegetarian than I am, I think I am more likely to eat meat again than they are.