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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to think parents shouldn't bring their child up vegetarian?

604 replies

Picante · 08/07/2009 18:18

Unless for religious reasons.

Yes this is a thread about a thread but I think I was annoying too many people over there so I've started my very own for people to get annoyed with me here!

I just think it's mean. Meat is such a huge part of our culture and fair enough if you're old enough to decide that you don't want to kill animals... but children should be given all sorts of food in the early years, including meat, until they are old enough to make that decision for themselves!

OP posts:
edam · 12/07/2009 19:54

Yeah, if you ask for your steak blue, it means it's barely cooked.

Papillon · 12/07/2009 20:02

I have meet women who are vege and cook meat for their family. takes all sorts in all grades

humane farming of animals for me over rides the issue of whether to eat meat or not. good condidtions for animals would help humans in lots of ways

Papillon · 12/07/2009 20:07

just got a joke on the programme the kids watching, my gym partner is a monkey. Code Blue in the cafeteria, the boy doesnt want to eat raw meat lol!

motherducky · 12/07/2009 22:04

We're all veggie for slightly different reasons aren't we? So surely whether or not we can/will feed our kids meat will vary.

I would like to be able to say that I would eat a chicken rather than starve, but I'm not 100% certain I would be able to, I know as a child/teenager I sometimes went for several days without food to avoid meat as I felt physically unable to stomache slaughtered animal and then it was always my mother that relented rather than me.

But I have no problem with other people eating meat, although I do find it absurd that many would 'never' be able to eat rabbit pie, snails, kill(animal)-and-eat etc. Surely meat is meat isn't it?

FlappyTheBat · 12/07/2009 22:50

I have killed and eaten - pheasant flew into the side of my dad's car when I was learning to drive.

He made me practice a 3 point turn on a narrow country road and go back and pick up the pheasant.

It was very nice, but probably not what you want to hear?

If I ever had the chance, I would love to go out shooting.

I eat game and therefore I think as motherducky said, as meat eaters we should be able to eat what we kill and not have animals presented to us in plastic boxes, when they bear no resemblance to the animal they once were.

BTW having a "blue" steak, is the only way that a decent steak should be served.

PixiNanny · 12/07/2009 23:11

motherducky: completely right I suppose on the different reason, though definately agree on the absurdity of choosing what meats to eat (as I mentioned earlier too lol). Meat is meat, if I ate it I would take advantage of it, I'd also try killing and sorting one myself to eat, as it would be hypocritical of me to eat meat if I couldn't kill it myself IMO.

But Flappy, really not info that was needed ... roadkill? :P Though, thinking about it, it would depend. Was it relatively intact, as in, hadn't been run over yet? If it just hit and didn't get run over it would be okay, but I'd draw the line at tire marks

I couldn't imagine having any meat blue. I would also draw the line at that. I would be hapy to eat cows and dogs and horses and cats if I ate meat, but I don't know how I would feel about blue meat.

Papillon · 13/07/2009 00:18

isn't it trendy to have steak a la blue - my father suddenly seems to think so after having it served well done most his life!

maybe tire marks helps soften the meat up abit!

Libloom · 13/07/2009 00:56

I am a young vegan mother with a young vegan son - he is happy and very healthy. If I can do it, anyone can!

I will bring my son up to know that it is wrong to harm other beings. When he is older he can make up his own mind...

A vegan child (if provided with a balanced and varied diet) in my opinion is healthier than one who is given meat and fatty dairy product. Most vegetarians/vegans know a hell of a lot more about nutrients and where to get them from than most meat-eaters!!

Even if my boy chooses to eat dairy (and godforbid!) meat when he is older then I will at least know that I gave him the best start in life!

Mrsparky · 13/07/2009 10:40

What absolute nonsense that humans need meat. i havent eaten meat since i was 11, by choice. Im healthy and happy. I eat some fish but no meat at all. My husband eats meat, now and again, but eats what I eat ont he whole. my 14 month old doesnt eat meat. If and when he wants to try meat I wouldnt stop him, but personally Id be sick if someone made me eat a dead lamb. I think they look way better boucing around in fields. Ironically i worked at a butchers when I was at school and it is NOT condusive to being a meat eater. Its disgusting what you actually eat, eg mince. Yak.

In conclusion, as long as your child eats quorn and a pules etc, as well as veggies and dairy, they will NOT suffer for not eating meat. AND its NOT mean, coz they dont know any different.

mygreatauntgriselda · 13/07/2009 11:53

Millions of ppl across the world exist on meat free diets, either by religion, ideal or limited access to meat

mygreatauntgriselda · 13/07/2009 11:56

We are lucky in this country to even have the luxury of choosing what we eat

PixiNanny · 13/07/2009 17:00

"maybe tire marks helps soften the meat up abit!" shudders

sallyjaygorce · 13/07/2009 17:06

I have veggie friends who cook meat for their guests and give thier daughter chicken and fish until she is old enough to decide for herself. I am happy to cook veggie for them so seems fair enough. But each to his own. I wouldn't impose vegetarianism on children and but rather that than a crap diet of the sort Jamie Oliver chats on about. But I wouldn't impose religion on them either. Generally think children should be exposed to as much as possible and be allowed to choose as they grow up.

My nephew was brought up veggie and allowed to try ham aged 10 - he LOVES it - his mum doesn't mind at all but his dad is very disapproving which I think is wrong.

sallyjaygorce · 13/07/2009 17:09

Also - agree with the blue steak thinking. One of life's great pleasures - a juicy bloddy steak. Do like it raw too. Had steak tartare with raw egg mixed in in Paris at an impressionable age.

Mamii · 13/07/2009 17:27

I believe that children should have a healthy balanced diet including meat - (occasional junk food doesn't hurt either).

Dropping any food group in a growing childs diet isn't healthy IMO - my daughter has an anaphylactic allergy to Cow's milk and I'm praying for the day she grows out of this allergy. She NEEDS a balanced diet. The suppliments that I give her aren't the same as getting the goodness from a natural food source.

People who deliberately give their children a diet that misses any important group without a very very good reason are barking in my opinion. Vegetable/Bean proteins aren't the same as proteins in meat.

Morloth · 13/07/2009 17:45

Mrsparky "I think they look way better boucing around in fields."

You do understand that if people didn't eat them, there wouldn't be any lambs bouncing around the fields don't you?

I liked that Mitchell & Webb skit where one of them pointed out that if people wanted to eat Polar Bears, they probably wouldn't be endangered.

Very clever from an evolutionary point of view being tasty. Not going to run out of chickens any time soon are we?

I think tough luck for the animals personally, if they don't like it they should get evolving and work their way up the food chain .

sallyjaygorce · 13/07/2009 18:09

I second Morloth. Find it odd people don't question WHY domestic animals exist in the first place. A field of wheat looks lovely too, but if you like a field with lambs bouncing around you'd better thank all those dreadful carnivores who put them there.

I do eat good quality, decently reared meat - more expensive sadly but animal welfare is very important to me. Which is why I am thinking of buying a pig, giving it a great life and then putting it in the freezer. After slaughter of course. When we move. Not easy to find space for it in our flat.

Morloth · 13/07/2009 18:10

Tell you what, we are royally fucked if cats ever figure out opposable thumbs.

sallyjaygorce · 13/07/2009 18:14

Quick - let's eat all the cats!

Morloth · 13/07/2009 18:16

Them kitties are fast! Was called Roof Rabbit in the way wasn't it?

Horton · 13/07/2009 18:51

We'd probably still have some lambs, if only for the wool, I suppose.

Qally · 13/07/2009 19:01

The weird thing about this debate is you have people on both sides who seem incapable of looking at it in any other way than that theirs is right, morally. Either meat is definitively murder and eating it is very, very wrong, or vegetarian protein is Not The Same and depriving a child of animal based food is very, very wrong.

Why not just accept that some people regard us as apex predators within the food chain, so are happy to eat meat as part of that cycle of life on the planet as long as there are good welfare standards and no suffering occurs; others think that as animals are sentient, we as thinking, reasoning creatures have a responsibility to avoid causing unnecessary death, even if the animals themselves are exempt from that requirement; and others just really hate the concept of dead flesh being part of their diet? And that all those positions are perfectly reasonable, their kids are no more likely to eat junk than any other kids, and the parent in question is probably doing what we all do - muddling through in an effort to do their best?

Someone who never feeds their child anything but trash (and I don't mean the occasional treat junk festival, I mean as a day-to-day diet) is being irresponsible. I'm also not too keen on people who don't give a monkeys about factory farming, because it's an unhealthy, environmentally damaging and cruel way to source food. (And I've never noticed the people who don't care about that being massively politically engaged, either, so the "people before animals!" cry doesn't make sense, from where I'm standing.) But the presence or otherwise of meat in that diet isn't the deciding factor.

Finally, if cats figure out opposable thumbs, lions will rule the planet. They'll probably make sure we eat an organic and balanced diet, but I fear humane abbatoirs aren't likely. They'll want to play with us first.

Morloth · 13/07/2009 19:06

Now where would be the fun in us all agreeing Qally? I love a good veggie/meat eater tussle myself .

Qally · 13/07/2009 19:13

Oh, I'm happy to have a good argument! Always happy to have a good argument (started online life on LiveJournal, where it's pretty much compulsory). It just sort of strikes me that some (emphasis on the some, here) people are drawing themselves up, striking a noble pose, and being "won't somebody think of the children/animals!" and insisting that the alternatives are just... wrong. Not, just not for them, or not what they personally believe is a good way to live, but an absolute moral wrong. And they sound exactly the same, in that they're viewing their own way of feeding their kids as the moral norm, to which all else should conform, and anyone who doesn't is letting their children down fundamentally.

I also like blue steak. And I was veggie almost a decade - it was hell, if I'm honest.

deadflesh · 13/07/2009 19:19

So Morloth, what if - say from another planet - beings of a higher intelligence (more evolved) decided that Earth was a great source and breeding ground of newly discovered delicious human meat?