to think that if you tell someone that your child is vegetarian...

[Tollund]

that they should respect this and not then try to feed them meat?!

At a birthday party with DS1 who is four and a parent there offered my DS a sausage. DS took one (as he didn't know is it was veggie or not) and I politely said to the man "thank you, but he's vegetarian."

He said "yes, I know, they told me that. But I thought I'd see if he wanted one, and he took one, so let him have it."

I ignored him and told DS not to eat it.

THe man then started on at me about how I should let him make his own choices and to let him eat it which I refused to be drawn into, politely telling him no and then walking away.

He then went up to the mother of the child whose party it was (about 10 feet away from me) and starts banging on about me not letting him eat meat!

I think this man was monumentally ignorant - why does he think he is in a position to make food choices for my four year old child? What if DS was Jewish? Or had allergies? I'm now loathe to let my DS anywhere near this man's child or to go to parties where this man might be - IABU? (I don't think I'm BU in terms of making dietary decisions for my son at this time in his life, but whether am BU in wanting to keep my DS very far away from that tool!)

Commercially available halal in the UK is pre-stunned and therefore arguably no worse than any other abbatoir experience.

If you object ot halal you also presumably NEVER eat any product with batttery hen eggs in it, in bought cakes, pasta, or other egg products? And NEVER eat danish or dutch pork which confines pigs (with the intelligence of dogs) on miserable conditions ?

LDNmummy Where on earth did that poster say that muslims couldn't be white?!

Blu Really? There was a program on telly about it not that long ago and that was NOT something that was stated (the pre stunned thing), in fact is whosed the opposite. IMO Halal is incredibly cruel and I wouldn't have it in my house. "no worse thean any other abbatoir experience" is not good enough in my eyes. Is it in yours?

And yes I only eat products that contain free range eggs.

And what's with this idea that it is worse to eat an animal that has a higher intelligence? What the fuck difference does that make?

Re vegetarian food whilst travelling, I live in Thailand (and have lived in various countries in the world) and can tell you that, contrary to popular belief, its actually pretty hard to find a pure vegetarian meal here. Food cooked with no meat, yes, food cooked without fish sauce, fish additives etc, almost impossible to find. So not good for veggies and not good for anyone with fish allergies.

I don't think it's right to keep ANY animal in battery / intensive conditions.

I think it's very wrong to keep highly intelligent animals in stalls in which they cannot move or lie down - or any animals. But many people seem to forget how pork is reared in denmark and the netherlands.

There was a big furore about halal chicken in KFC and it was revealed to be pre-stunned. Some hard-core hala;l butchers sell not-stunned meat, but that which is commercially available is usually stunned.

I don't think any animal cruelty is OK - but i think it's a bit hypocritical for anyone who objects to halal meat to then eat intensively reared pork products (bacon sarnie on a cafe, whatever free range they eat at home, etc) or batter eggs or intensively reared chicken.

And I am on the Op's side re the original incident.

But I am sick of this thread now - it is bringing out everyone's unreasonableness, defensiveness, aggression, and irrationality.

But I am sick of this thread now - it is bringing out everyone's unreasonableness, defensiveness, aggression, and irrationality.

It did that yesterday...and did absolutely nothing for the cause.

I was beginning to wonder if Muslims and their eating habits were going to be the target of the day now....

Hopefully not!

YANBU OP, some shocking opinions on this thread.

the man was being a total wazzack, completely pointless exercise in trying to undermine you.

DBF, i'm happy to hand the moral highground to vegans, i respect their consistency and dedication. Vegetarians, i dont feel morally inferior too, they just draw their line in a different place to me, and any lectures about the plight of animals from anyone who eats dairy are ludicrous.

WhoseGot Whatever17 said she was getting cheese pizza for Muslims and sausage rolls "for the white kids". This infers that white kids are not Muslim.

I'm always tempted with veggies to quote Nana from The Royle Family 'Could she have some wafer thin ham..?'

"Whatever17 said she was getting cheese pizza for Muslims and sausage rolls "for the white kids". This infers that white kids are not Muslim."

Also implies that non-white kids are all Muslims, and 'white kids'/non-Muslims are never vegetarian! So much wrong with that sentence that I didn't know where to start!

Of course you can respect/admire someones choices even if you don't necessarily agree with them. I can't hack being vegan but I admire those that can, likewise i admire people who can have complete faith in their God for standing up for their beliefsw and not being afraid to do so.

YANBU

The fact of whether you are right to make your child be a vegetarian or not is completely irrelevant. He was rude and unreasonable, and is probably one of those militant meat eaters that think they are right about EVERYTHING.

This "don't force your mad vegetarian ideals on your child" argument is completely loopy. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there "forcing" a non junk food diet on their children. No-one would criticise them for it.

Rmutt, I stopped eating meat when I was about ten, and whenever we visited my nana, she always used to say things like "well, can I open a tin of corned beef for her?"

"Whatever17 said she was getting cheese pizza for Muslims and sausage rolls "for the white kids". This infers that white kids are not Muslim."

Oh. I suspect it was just a quickly written and badly thought out sentence rather then she actually thinks 'white kids non muslim', 'all non white kids muslim' etc.

OP should have said "thank you but I don't allow him to eat meat". Pretending that a 4 year old has made a rational decision to be vegetarian is ridiculous.

Have only read first and last page of this thread, but you are definitely not being unreasonable op... in fact the sausage man sounds utterly bonkers / unbelievably rude and with a total axe of his own to grind...

Redbin The OP actually says "thank you, but he's vegetarian" which doesn't imply it was the childs decision.

Why do people seem to get so upset about vegetarianism? I don't get it. I eat meat but Dsis has been veggie for most of her life and have lost count of the number of relatives/friends/strangers who seem to have to have an opinion on it!

YANBU at all. THis man sounds absolutely odious. The issue is not whether or not your son should be a vegetarian but why this man thinks its ok to behave like this towards anyone who holds a different belief to him.

WGME that is very pedantic and again goes back to the fact we can all assume that parents make many choices on behalf of their children; religion, diet, clothes, whether or not to accept a party invitation...

Would it sound odd to say, 'No thanks he's Jewish' or would you require 'No thanks we are Jewish and have made the decision to bring him up Jewish also'?

Redbin - who's pretending anything of the sort? Why is it any more out of order than the sausage pusher saying "I don't allow my child to be vegetarian"?

I think that it is mainly to do with calling a 4 yr old a vegetarian. He is a DC who has been brought a vegetarian and is the DC of vegetarians-no one knows if he will decide to become one himself. At 4 yrs people should abide by the parents wishes.

And anyway, lots of 4 year olds and thereabouts (examples mentioned here) do say they don't want to eat dead animals. DH did it at about this age. Just his parents didn't tell him about bacon, sausages, ham...

@ "the sausage pusher"

I'm enjoying the desciptions of sausage man :)

exoticfruits the most basic meaning of vegetarian is a person who does not eat meat for whatever reason. So he is a vegetarian, maybe he won't be when he is older, but he is now.