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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think that you don't walk into a vegan cafe with a Mcdonald's burger in your hand

236 replies

TapasForTwo · 10/03/2019 09:48

Had a lovely lunch yesterday at a bar that sells outstandingly good vegan food (I'm not vegan, but the food is insanely good).

As we were walking out DD asked if I had seen a family walk in with one of the children holding a Mcdonald's burger in their hand.

a) It is rude to bring your own food into a café anyway
b) It is breathtakingly rude to bring meat into a vegan café!

This place sells the most amazing chips, so they could easily have bought this child the chips instead of a McDonald's.

OP posts:
Alsohuman · 11/03/2019 13:10

What medical need could a child have for meat? That’s right up there as one of the most ludicrous things i’ve ever read.

JassyRadlett · 11/03/2019 13:20

Jassy wasn’t taking to or about me, she’s quoting another, really very silly poster (who happened to be addressing me) claiming vegetarian restaurants shouldn’t exist...

Thank you! I’m puzzled by Mymy’s post, except for an ‘I’m pissed off you disagreed with me earlier’ motivation I can’t see where it’s coming from?

Additionally if she wants to eat meat everyday, with every meal, it’s her body her choice. That’s the very crux of this argument.

Can you point to where I suggested that it wasn’t his/her choice? I was expressing surprise at someone considering meat a non-negotiable part of any meal, ever. I maintain that surprise, and my sense that it is pretty unusual.

howabout · 11/03/2019 14:19

What medical need could a child have for meat?

DD's friend is allergic to seafood, nuts and most pulses and seeds. Admittedly unlikely to enter a vegan restaurant as a result but also pretty much restricted to a meat based diet.

Mummadeeze · 11/03/2019 17:31

Sorry, I must be rude but when my DD was a toddler I would take McDonalds into restaurants with us so that we could eat somewhere nice and she would actually eat. I did usually ask if the restaurant was okay with it and they never had a problem. I think they would rather make money from a group of adults than lose out because one of them has a toddler who won’t eat anything except chicken nuggets.

beansontoastfortea · 11/03/2019 17:35

My dd9 likes to come To my slimming world group with me and always asks if she can bring some biscuits to snack on! Lol

Skullbiker · 11/03/2019 18:23

Yes you are being unreasonable - is it really any of your business or concern ? Not really unless the cafe have appointed you as the food police. 😁

Ravenesque · 11/03/2019 18:30

tl;dr

Take the vegan out of this and we see a family entering a cafe/bar with food that they've bought elsewhere. This is rude and a lot of eateries would ask you to leave for doing that and most of us would agree that the staff were quite within their rights to do so.

If the child will only eat McDonald's, then, I don't know, maybe the whole family could eat there. Or maybe they could get the child something to eat there, make sure it's eaten before going to the cafe/restaurant. Because it's rude to bring your own food into a cafe/restaurant and owners and staff have the right not to serve you.

Bringing the vegan back into it, it's a bit bloody rude to bring meat into a meat and dairy free environment. Would it bother me? A bit. Probably to the same degree that it bothered @TapasForTwo. Enough to notice it, enough to think it was rude and enough to maybe post about it on here. And enough to think it was hilarious that some people seem to think that all vegans are mentalists who want to take all their meat away from them forever.

And yes, I don't eat meat. I ate meat on and off for most of my life then about five years ago I read a novel, We Were All Completely Beside Ourselves and suddenly I just couldn't do it anymore. N.b. the book only has some mild bit about meat can be bad in it, so I don't know why it hit me in the stomach so hard, but life is a funny old thing. This year I'm working toward a plant-based diet, sort of vegan, but I have lots of leather shoes and stuff, so much as I'd like to go the whole way, I know I won't. Blah, blah, blah. I hold my hands up and say I really don't like to see people eating meat around me, but that is my issue and not theirs. I happily judge on the inside while also happily judging myself for being such a hypocritical twat. I don't preach, it's not my place and everyone - including me - hates that shit. A friend did inspire me, but not through preaching, but because I was so impressed with the way he'd changed his life. I do, however, sometimes force tasty as fuck vegan dishes on friends who love dairy and eggs and all that good stuff. They cry and ask me where are the eggs, why is there no meat choice, you are destroying my life. And I laugh and tell them my victory is close. Yes, my tongue is in my cheek. Oh, no meat! Grin

Tessabelle74 · 11/03/2019 18:30

If 2 adults are eating, and having drinks you're looking at getting on for £30, most cafes wouldn't care about a child eating brought in food in that case. If they all trooped in and sat down to eat brought in food then yes, it's cheeky. As for the McDonald's I think you're making it up to cause a vegan bun fight

Mmmmbrekkie · 11/03/2019 18:32

What’s to say it wasn’t a veggie burger?

joyfullittlehippo · 11/03/2019 18:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CasanovaFrankenstein · 11/03/2019 18:53

It’s either deliberately antagonistic, completely clueless or straight up entitled. Probably another option too but depending on situation!

donkeyshrekmom · 11/03/2019 19:05

It's bad manners from the point of view that you don't take food from one place into another (with exception of baby food, severe food intolerances perhaps) but I personally find it HILARIOUS that it was McD in a vegan place. I'd have laughed out loud and taken a photo.

TapasForTwo · 11/03/2019 19:06

I suspect it was just thoughtless Casanova

I am still bemused by the defensive comments though. Are some people so perfect that they never make observations about people who think it is OK to behave in a manner that is considered inappropriate? Or do they just think it is OK to behave like this?

Basically, health issues aside, it is just plain rude to take food into somewhere that sells food to be consumed on the premises.

This has to be the most responded thread I have ever started Grin

Thank you for the comments - negative as well as positive.

OP posts:
genius1308 · 11/03/2019 19:06

I'm a full blown carnivore. I've got to admit I each meat most days and i love it. But I've got to say I think it's very rude to 1: take your own food into any establishment that sells food and 2: take meat into a vegan establishment. There's loads of places that serve meat so go there. Or if darling little Jonny can only eat McDonald's then he should have eaten it before entering the cafe. If you're going to come back with 'well the family might have all wanted to eat together', well they should have chosen somewhere where they all liked the menu. I'm sure there'd have been an outcry if little Jonny had taken a bacon butty into a Muslim establishment (and rightly so). It's just rude and ignorant. I love an Indian but wouldn't take my kids because neither of them like it. I wouldn't dream of going anyway and just taking along a pizza!

TapasForTwo · 11/03/2019 19:06

Actually donkeyshrek I agree Grin

OP posts:
motherheroic · 11/03/2019 19:11

It's just lack of common sense really isn't it.

Bringing outside food to another food establishment.

Jogonandshutup · 11/03/2019 19:32

YANBU - this is terribly rude. If it was/when it is the other way around and a vegan says/does something the meat eaters moan like mad! I’m vegetarian but not vegan (I do try but only about 50%).

Ravenesque · 11/03/2019 20:11

@joyfullittlehippo, the vegan aspect does make it ruder, but to be honest if I ran a greasy spoon and someone came in with McDonald's I'd tell them to do one too.

Some parents do seem to think that having children means that normal rules of decency in public places aren't aimed at them because "oh my child is so lovely and it's only x/y/z. Very much some though. The majority of humans, whether parents or not are able to act decently most of the time.

NicolaC17 · 11/03/2019 20:59

McDonald’s is vegan though isn’t it? Or at least vegetarian? There’s not actual meat in a McDonald’s, surely everyone knows this!

lilypoppet · 11/03/2019 21:44

I was in a local vegetarian cafe ladt summer and a family came in but the children didn't like anything. Two parents went next door to Gregg's to get tgem sausage rolls and tbe owner said thetd have to eat them outside, which they did. I think its standard practice fir a vegetarian cafe YANBU.

NCforthis2019 · 11/03/2019 21:59

But the vegan activists barge into all sorts of restaurants shouting and screaming and generally being a bit crazy - so yeah, no in unfortunately have no sympathy. Sorry OP.

Alsohuman · 11/03/2019 22:20

You must frequent some very odd restaurants. Shrieking, shouting vegans have never invaded anywhere I've eaten.

TapasForTwo · 11/03/2019 23:06

Me neither Alsohuman

OP posts:
JassyRadlett · 11/03/2019 23:15

But the vegan activists barge into all sorts of restaurants shouting and screaming and generally being a bit crazy - so yeah, no in unfortunately have no sympathy. Sorry OP.

Goodness, where on earth do you live? I eat out quite a lot at a wide variety of places and I’ve never seen anything close to this.

Im not doubting that you’re telling the truth, but I’m intensely curious as to where you live.

BadLad · 11/03/2019 23:24

I'm guessing she read about it rather than actually witnessed it.

A quick google shows that it is not unheard of. For example:

www.google.co.jp/amp/s/www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1051012/Vegan-Protest-veganism-food-brighton-steakhouse-football-songs-weird-news/amp

I've never seen people walking into vegan cafes clutching hamburgers, but I'm not going to disbelieve the OP just for that.

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