Is it really that hard.....? 🤔

[StillGotBabyBrain]

My family is vegan, not a massive deal.

When the school has events, no vegan option, so everyone gets a bbq or food catered and we don't. Not even a dairy free alternative for hot drinks! (Primary school, high school is better).

When they go for sleepovers I get worried parents asking me what should they do, can I provide food and drinks for them...

Pubs and restaurants barely cater for adults let alone add options for the kids menu.

Went to a choir meeting the other week, nothing I could eat from the food included in my ticket price.

Am I being unreasonable thinking it's really not that difficult to provide bread and houmous or vegetable dishes? They're suitable for everyone, so isn't a waste of food! Blows my mind.

This

🤣🤣🤣🤣

I have visions of you fighting your way to the pizza. Come hell or high water, you will get that damn pizza 🍕 😤 🤣 😂

@NeverDropYourMooncup actually other cultures are much more accepting of vegan food than traditional British cuisine. Plus the dishes aren't put on the menu as a sort of 'vegan option' but as another equally valid menu choice. For example, I've just been out for Mexican food, had black beans not chicken. Monday I went out for Balinese food, had a tofu and aubergine. It's the 'fish and chips, roast dinner' food which is harder to replicate well without using animal protein. I don't eat the fake meat so apart from nut roast (which I love) or a big grilled, well seasoned portobello mushroom I'm a bit screwed.
Like I said in my previous post, I'm not vegan but it is WITHOUT A DOUBT better for the planet and for our health. I'm not saying there's not fat vegans or unhealthy vegans but that the principles are healthier and rely more on cooking from scratch and watching the nutritional content of foods. Did you read 'how not to die'? Essentially it was a vegan diet.
But keep telling me how superior you are by eating dead animals and pus filled milk.

Which diseases can plant-based diets reverse?
Is plant-based diet the only way to reverse those diseases?

@StillGotBabyBrain Damn straight! Now I think about it, I might just be the world’s most aggressive gentle person 😂

@lljkk www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-not-to-die-review

I include the criticism for some to make up their own mind

Ha ha ha ha. I'd like to see you try telling everybody where where I've lived all my life that you're the expert on other cultures' dietary habits.

@StillGotBabyBrain "My kids do not want to eat non vegan food. They do not want to contribute to the harm of animals. They do not want to increase their risk of disease.

I couldn't stop them if I wanted to when they're out or round a friends, but, they don't want to. They get really upset if they slip up, they understand why they are vegan and they're very outspoken about it. They ask to go to protests and take it all seriously."

This all sounds very familiar. Odd isn't it that children who have been brainwashed to believe what their parents believe develop such anxiety when they break the rules.

My own food anxiety started in a similar way to what you're describing here and ended with me starving myself because someone had put milk on the same shelf and had therefore contaminated my vegan food. This is the reason why I empathise with those with Anxiety or OCD as the fear and guilt they describe sounds very similar to my own experience.

However, no one was forcing me to do it. My fear, anxiety and guilt was entirely self inflicted. That's the difference.

Actually these days it's often the children influencing their parents. My DC were vegan before I was. I learned from them.

@NeverDropYourMooncup did I say restaurants should stop having meat on their menus? No. It's not about forcing people to change, it's about giving people options. If you make one street (just one street) in the whole of the country a place where vegans could go and know they could have a choice of everything on the menu then people would visit. And those who hated veganism (like those on this thread) wouldn't. Just like some people aren't curious enough to eat anywhere except chain restaurants.
As a member of a minority group, I find it offensive that you don't consider that there aren't vegans within different cultures. I know vegan Colombians, vegan Brazilians, vegan Sri Lankans, vegan Ghanians. People in every culture will always establish their own ethics. There's enough gentrification in my neck of the woods and this wouldn't be more of that. It wouldn't be £14 salad bars. There would be a range of prices and cuisines to suit most people.

They're strong willed and amazing kids. They don't need to worry as no one brings cows milk into our home. They're healthy and thriving. I also ate bread with milk in it a few months ago. It really upset me, I didn't lose sleep over it though. What does stop me sleeping is the experiences I've had at puppy breeding facilities for animal testing, people brutally murdering animals when they could just buy a can of lentils for 60p instead and calves being shot at birth because they won't produce milk.

You had a bad experience with food as a teen and now associate that with veganism. I've already said, it is anecdotal.

What part of the above didn't you get re me forcing them?

Stop projecting 2pence.

If I cooked for a vegan they'd have to suck up the fact that meat will be cooked at the same time for us as we simply don't like vegan food.
Vegans who kick up a fuss because the BBQ has had meat cooking on it make me 🙄 unless your bringing your own BBQ why bother moaning about it?

Don’t like vegan food 🤣! A standard in all our BBQs is grilled corn, grilled field mushrooms (with garlic butter), grilled peppers, grilled asparagus with a lemon vinaigrette and grilled peaches for pudding with ice cream (you can also do this with pineapple) - all of this with the exception of the butter and ice cream is vegan and gets inhaled by guests when I have a bbq - meat eaters and all. All get cooked first and plated as them cooling is not too much of a issue and then I would make bbq bread rolls next and zone them then get on with grilling the meat - steak and chicken are favourites of mine - will make sausages/hot dogs for kids. When meat ready - reheat mushrooms in microwave. Grilled fruit can be reheated after the main. Many vegetarians (not just vegans) don’t want meat juices on their food at BBQs too - do you exclude them too?

I’m honestly amazed by people’s reactions to vegans/vegetarians but I realise from a previous poster who is Asian that I also come from a tradition with spices and a wide variety of non meat dishes which I happily would tuck into that do not include meat substitutes. I understand that some of this ease for me is because I love cooking and menu planning - a common warning from my husband and my sister when we’re hosting is for me to make no more than 3 salads and to generally calm down with the food 🤣so yes your mileage may differ but honestly cooking for (reasonable) vegans/vegetarians isn’t really too much of a faff.

(and yes I made goose fat roast potatoes once for my vegetarian friend 😳- and I learned from that. She once was trying to helpful in clearing the kitchen for Boxing Day lunch and she threw out my gravy drippings 😅because it looked like rubbish and I had to make Bisto gravy! And now if I have a vegetarian/vegan to cater for - I purposely remove butter, goose/chicken/bacon fat, honey, chicken/beef stock, pancetta, milk/cream/crème fraiche/yoghurt and cheese from the shared dishes but still can make flavourful and satisfying dishes).

There's already a full range of cuisines where I live and there will be non meat or dairy containing choices in all of them. No need for some white bod paid a shitload by the council to inform residents that they can't have a shop in a particular place because a mate wants cheap rates the small number of vegans who won't ever spend enough to keep 5-6 restaurants, grocers and two takeaways going all year round can't handle the idea of there being animal based food available in practically every takeaway and restaurant in the high street and eating chickens is really bad, mmm-kay.

Omg Mexican black beans, avocado, coriander and lime 🫠- in crispy tacos OMG!

You might want to look at cooking your own lentils from scratch rather than getting them from plastic lined cans.

For the poster above that said things like fish and chips are hard to replicate, I haven't tried it but I hear jackfruit is good for replicating fish? Might be interesting to try.

I don't find it hard to cater to vegans as most are reasonable towards those around them who make different choices. I'll never forget the one family I knew who alienated everyone around them with their approach though.

They get really upset if they slip up, they understand why they are vegan and they're very outspoken about it. They ask to go to protests and take it all seriously.

religious cult?

@StillGotBabyBrain they are vegan because you are vegan. You gave them these beliefs. Do you think it's also anecdotal that Christian families have children that also believe in Jesus and God like they do?

And YOUR beliefs are the ones that create the anxiety and guilt when your kids "mess up".

To make the ridiculous excuse that no one will bring milk into your house just demonstrates that you have entirely missed the point that YOUR projection of your own angst has infected your children's thinking.

Children shouldn't be worried about the food they eat. I'm sure they parrot your beliefs beautifully but this doesn't mean that they have conveniently arrived at the same conclusion as you hold independently. They believe what you tell them, they are children. Stop kidding yourself.

What can I tell you, people just don’t want to deal with vegans. 🤷‍♀️ I’ll happily cater to vegetarians, but not vegans. Too restrictive and I just don’t care enough to make the effort.

Didn’t know fruit and vegetables were so restrictive and hard to prepare.

I’m not vegan nor vegetarian, but opinions like this just seem ill-informed and lazy. It’s not hard to prepare a dish that doesn’t come from animals. People eat things that aren’t from animals all the time without thinking about it.

I hear more complaints from the so-called “must have meat with every meal types” than I do vegans.

OPs kids get ‘really upset’ when they mess up

How has that suddenly turned into ‘anxiety and grief’

Vegans are a pain

@Iolani guilt, not grief. They get upset because they've been raised to place the needs of unknown farm animals above their own needs like their parents do.

correction
OP said her kids get ‘ really upset’ when they mess up

How has that suddenly turned into ‘ anxiety and guilt’ in your post.

To explain as you haven’t answered

Why have you said her kids felt anxiety and guilt when OP didn’t say this.

Answer, as you haven’t. You want to give the impression her kids are suffering to such an extent that they are anxious and guilt ridden.

But that not true is it. That’s your words
and as 20% of children are moving towards a plant based diet by choice and a higher rate of 18 - 24 year olds I think it’s obvious many current meat eating kids brought up by their meat eating parents and carers will be the ones more likely to be unhappy that they were forced to eat animals.

Few quick Google’s for you.

I assure you my opinions are based on not caring about vegans, and not making any efforts to cater to them, not laziness. An important distinction.

Thanks, I'll have a look :)