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

[Picante]

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!

I am not pale and thin either and gave birth to a whopping 10lb 4oz baby. That silenced alot of critics

Right.I am veggie,dp isn't.I thought[trying to be reasonable]that ds1 should be brought up eating meat until he was able to choose.Dp thought opposite so that is what we did.He is totally fine!and if he decides to eat meat at some point he will be allowed toHe is nearly 10.
Off to read rest of thread.
Yes op I think you are being unreasonable.

DH is a veggie and has been for nearly 30 years..

DS (14) and I love meat & fish..

DD (8) asked when she was about 3 why daddy didn't eat meat, when she found out that meat was in fact a dead animal she was HORIFIED and has not eaten meat or fish since.. she has also on more than one occasion told me 'i can't beleive you made me eat dead animals when i was a baby'

so in summary, YABU, all parents make decisions for their children based on what they beleive and feel is right for them. there is room in the world for all different sorts of views.. the 4 of us cohabit quite happily despite our different dietry intakes

(also i am MUCH paler than the two veggies, although definately not thinner )

YABU

We are a vegetarian family and my 14 month old dd has a great diet and loves her food. Friends and family have remarked on how healthy her diet is and how well she eats.

As parents, we all make choices for our children, and IMO vegetarianism is a great choice. I think it's mean to bring your child up eating dead animal, so there!

Picante - I think parents shouldnt bring their children up as meat eaters

Nuff said

Unbelievable nonsense about veggie children being pale & thin.

presumably it was a wind up.

What about vegans then? they can barely get out of bed...oh, it seems not:

"Well-known vegan sports people include:

• Sally Eastall, marathon runner
• Keith Holmes, former world champion middleweight boxer
• Carl Lewis, winner of nine Olympic Gold Medals and one of the greatest athletes of the twentieth century
• Martina Navratilova, champion tennis player - one of the most successful tennis players in history
• Dave Scott, six-time Ironman Champion and first inductee into the Ironman Hall of Fame
• Lucy Stephens, triathlete

"My best year of track competition was the first year I ate a vegan diet. Moreover, by continuing to eat a vegan diet, my weight is under control, I like the way I look...I enjoy eating more, and I feel great." Carl Lewis

Your hard hat must be fairly battered by now, OP, no?

I don't care what vegetarians eat, but it's annoying to hear from some that it's not natural when in fact we are evolved to eat both veg and meat.

As I understand it you can keep healthy with just veg if you are careful. It doesn't have to make you weak/ill.

I just don't see any point in limiting yourself that way, but people can make up their own minds.

I wonder if there's a group of people that won't eat vegetables that grow underground or a group that will only eat those or perhaps only male animals or animals without horns or something. Those would all be about the same kind of thing to me.

I'm vegetarian and my children are too. I feel discriminated against as I want the right to feed my kids greggs sausage rolls.

Sorry, YAB SO U.

If I started a thread saying 'Am IBU to suggest it's unfair for parents to bring their children up as Christian' I'd get stoned or something!

Being a vegetarian is a belief and a set of ethics for most veggies - what gives anyone the right to criticise it? And don't we all make choices as to how we bring up our own children?

onager I agree with you, vegetarians shouldn't preach to others about what they eat. But what we all eat is personal choice - we are humans - high intellect and moral choices - so we choose what to do, say, eat, drink ... free will. It isn't a matter of how we've evolved really.

"meat is such a huge part of our culture" - so is ruddy football but you don't hear anyone suggesting people who don't give a toss about Wayne Rooney aren't good parents, do you?

FWIW my mother really nagged me about vegetarianism being unhealthy when I was carrying ds. She shut up about it when he was born weighing 8lbs 7oz.

hi, edam,
we often meet here, don't we...

Should be some sort of veggie signal. Like Spock's live long and prosper or whatever it was.

ok, not read any of this, but i am torn re children as veggies.

DP and i have just stopped eating meat, have done for about a month now, and think we will stick with it. One of our reasons is health concerns surrounding red meat etc, although our principal concern was animal welfare. As such, DD still has meat, although her diet is now mostly meat free - i do prepare meat for her and when she has school meals i wont have her as a veggie unless she requests. She is just 4.

But what worries me is - Is it bad for her health to be veggie? Or could it be actually worse for her to be eating meat?

Seriously, i don't know what to think - my instinct is to give her meat but there is a feeling in my gut that screams at me "you dont want to eat that so why make your child eat it, you stupid bitch"

I don't have a problem with parents choosing to bring up their children as vegetarians however if as a child gets older they decide they no longer want to be vegetarian then I think the parents should respect this.

YABU

Too tired to read whole thread right now (due to the lateness of the hour rather than my diet btw )

I have been veggie from birth and now am bringing DD up on a vegetarian diet.

Both DD and I are very healthy, eat a tasty, varied diet and enjoy food very much.

I don't feel that I have been deprived or that my parents were "mean".

When DD was born, like my mother did when I was born, I contacted the vegetarian society for information to make sure that I was giving DD a nutritionally balanced diet.

I have no idea how to cook meat and have no intention of learning now. However, DD is welcome to try meat when she is older and aware of what it actually is without any discouragement or judgement from me.

BTW, YABVVVVVU!

YABVU! My parents were veggie so I always have been, and I fully intend to bring up dd to be veggie until she is old enough to make her own decision. Is it part of our culture?

I have had issues with this as dp is German and his family don't believe that it is possible to function without meat. dp is veggie because I do most of the cooking - he does occasionally eat meat but not at home because he doesn?t want to upset me. But we decided that dd (obviously once she is eating solids) will only eat meat if she is able to comprehend that it comes from killing animals, and is ok with this. This is something dp and I talked about pre-pregnancy, and something mil cannot deal with. She even went as far as trying to guilt / force me into eating meat while I was pregnant and trying to hide meat in other food while we visited them. The reasons we chose to bring her up veggie are:
-I think that bringing up DD in the more-neutral and less-controversial way is less likely to cause problems in the future. If she were to decide that she wants to eat meat later then I don't expect that she would feel too disgusted and hate us for not feeding it to her while she was small. Whereas if I had fed her meat until she was old enough to decide she thought it was wrong then she might resent me for forcing her to do something which she feels is immoral.
-Something as big as taking life for your dinner should be an active decision rather than something forced on a child before they?re old enough to understand the process.
-I don't want my baby to be doing anything I find morally wrong and disgusting. All parents bring up their child within their own moral code, and it would upset me to feed / see my dd being fed something which I do not even see as food.
-She will get a healthy (possibly healthier) diet without meat so I cannot see any possible benefit to feeding it to her (other than getting my mil off of my back!)

yabu

hmmm...well I certainly wouldn't raise my kids as vegetarians.
BUT I wouldn't try and tell other parents how to raise their children as it is none of my business so on that basis YABU.

Picante I think you have a point.

I have been vegetarian for over 20 years. My DH eats meat. My dd(10) has been veggie for three years and my 2 DSs all eat meat.

I always wanted my children to experience as many different tastes and textures of food as possible in the early years. They can specialise and choose their own path later.
My DSs tear meat from chicken legs with cave-man-like passion.

They only get meat once or twice a week and DH cooks it. It wouldn't occur to me to cook meat. I do however make sure it's good quality organic meat wherever possible.

That should say my 3 DSs all eat meat. I'm selling myself short.

Dragonrider - at your MIL hiding meat in your food!

imaynotbeperfect - If you are feeling unsure and want to look into the possibility of feeding your DD a healthy, balanced vegetarian diet, I have found the Vegetarian Society really helpful: here