for everyone to accept my son is a healthy 2yr old VEGETARIAN??? [angry]

[MrsKat]

Why can't ANYONE in my husband's family accept that our 2yr old is being brought up as a vegetarian? And that whenever he has a runny nose, it DOESN'T mean he isn't healthy because he doesn't eat meat.
Is there anyone else out there who is veggie but their husband and entire family aren't?

BintOfBohemia, a carnivore is something else.
Also I'm a bit taken aback that you have chosen to "force vegetable eating upon them!"

About these veggie sausages, Quorn mince and other meat substitutes. Are they any good?

I wonder what it means if people claim to not want to eat meat, but pay extra for their vegetables to be dressed up as meat. Is that like nicotine chewing gum?

If you admit to wanting meat, but are denying yourself for moral/religious reasons then I can understand having fake meat to replace what you're missing, but do the "ewww I wouldn't want to eat flesh" veggies also buy fake meat?

Surely there are enough decent vegetarian recipes not to have to resort to "fake meat products"?

I've had Quorn sausages. They were horribly bland. Tofu was tolerable but only because of the other ingredients and flavourings it was cooked with.

As an omnivore (not carnivore) I can't imagine eating them by choice when I can get excellent quality bacon, lamb and pork from the local farm shop van.

OP I have the same situation! My dh is German and his family think it is essential to eat meat a minimum of once a day (usually twice though to be on the safe side)! He's not as bad as them because I refuse to cook it, but he still eats it when he cooks or we're out. My mil refuses to accept that a veggie diet can be healthy, so she hid meat in my food once while I was pregnant. She never actually told me she had done it, but when I started being very very sick for quite a long time she decided to tell my dh incase it caused a miscarriage. (never said sorry to me though ) She thought that my morning sickness and tiredness were totally due to not eating meat because she ate meat while pregnant and never felt like that, so possibly she really was trying to help. But before that she went through the whole ''you've got to think of what is best for your baby not yourself'' and inviting us to meals where I could only eat the potatoes and veg or something.

DH and I have decided that dd will be veggie until she is old enough to make her own informed decision. As the parents we had to make a decision, (not mil!!) but because mil can't be trusted not to force dd to eat meat, we think it is unlikely that dd will be able to stay in Germany with her grandparents.

Tofu's fine in Chinese food, where it belongs.

And it's not only fine to feed your cat meat, it's obligatory. They really are true carnivores - would be very cruel to try to feed a cat a vegetarian diet.

As for a veggie feeding the child of an, um, mixed marriage meat, my stipulation is that it has to be free range/organic so at least the poor things lived as good a life as possible.

Agree that ultimately in line with my principles I should be vegan, but I'm not. We can each of us only do so much.

(Although having said that I've had cats that loved butter, cheese and marmite. And our new kitten nicked a cucumber stick off ds's plate yesterday and was trying very hard to suck it to death...)

Hi onagar. Will try to answer your points...

"I'm a bit taken aback that you have chosen to "force vegetable eating upon them!" "

I'm going to impose all kinds of things on them, like bedtimes, medicine, clothes, meals, until they have the capacity to take over for themselves. As all parents do.

"About these veggie sausages, Quorn mince and other meat substitutes. Are they any good?"

All very subjective, you like them or you don't, but Quorn is a very good low fat source of vegetarian protein, as is tofu.

"I wonder what it means if people claim to not want to eat meat, but pay extra for their vegetables to be dressed up as meat. Is that like nicotine chewing gum? "

Essentially, yeah, I suppose so. I have the utmost admiration for people who really like meat but give it up on ethical grounds. THat takes willpower. It's always been easy for me as I've always absolutely hated the stuff. Which is why I can't eat certain meat substitutes as they freak me out. Whereas a meat eater will tell you that quite a lot of these fake sausages etc taste nothing like meat, but they are actually quite good in their own right. Try the cauldron sausages, they're really good. My DH LOVES proper sausages/bacon but really enjoys them.

"I always find it totally bizarre that veggie parents will feed their children meat at home, it totally undermines any of the moral/ethical values they hold and what probably made them veggie in first. You either think it's ok to kill to eat or you don't."

Or as I described above some people just don't like meat and want their children to have as varied a diet as possible despite their own preferences - nothing bizarre about that.

Vegetarianism has always been a choice that people make for many more reasons than moral or ethical ones.

I ADORED meat and was a voracious meat eater and didn't understand vegetarians until I became one! (For ethical reasons. Now it's not so much because we are killing something, as we now have really good free-range farmers who care about their meat. My problem seems to mainly lie in the manner of slaughter - they all know what's coming unless you sneak up on them and that's never going to happen - so for the last moments of their life they are in abject terror, and for me that isn't justifiable.)

Anyway, as I was 18 then, I have never bought or cooked meat for myself - until I decided to 'treat' my husband and cook him some sausages...hmmm...luckily he realised pink on one side and black on the other isn't a good look, particularly for a sausage!

I love Linda McCartney stuff, as I miss meat even now, and feel this is a really good substitute.

WOW - Dragonrider - can't believe your MiL.
How are you even speaking to her???
You're a very good DiL - she would be off my Christmas Card list!!!

edam - problem with my mum is that she was a very liberal parent, never really gave advice just told us to make our own decisions in life etc...it is only in the last few years (since I met OH really) that she has started to be a bit catty with me sometimes. I really don't know why. So she didn't really impose her views much when we were little...

I gave up meat for ethical reasons and I love the meat substitutes. I can't tell the difference between Quorn and beef mince, and have got to the point where if I smell 'fake' bacon cooking, I go "ooh bacon, yum!"

I also love tofu. Would eat loads of it even if I wasn't veggie.

Mrs Kat, I am still speaking to mil but I have no intention of going back to their house! It was obviously angry that she had hidden meat, but I was almost as annoyed that she never told me she had done it and never apologised to me. I don't think I will ever be able to trust her to look after dd now. But that's more of a problem for them than me because they had been hoping to be allowed to have her for a week or so each Christmas and summer (once she's eating solids), to make up for all the time they can't see her inbetween. (Secretly I'm quite glad about this because I'm not keen on letting dd go away with anyone for a week).

I am not a vegetarian but as millions of people everywhere in the world are born and raised vegetarian, never take up meat/fish as adults and go on to live long and happy lives, I do not understand why people take issues with vegetarian parents. Teaching your children how to live your life consistently with your values is an important principle.

Willow - even so, when you were little, it was your mother who decided what clothes were on your back and what food was on your plate and how your hair was cut. She was imposing her views on you by virtue of being a parent and making choices for you when you were too young to make them yourself!

Well said sweetss.
If only everyone could be as tolerant and understanding as you :-)

I think some people assume vegetarians are unwell, because everyone knows (or thinks they know) a 'veggie' who only eats mushroom pizza and is always sick. So, they expand from that to think that all veggies must be ill all the time. I was veggie for a long time, and always correct DH's family when they make comments like that. I was always very healthy when I was veggie because I ate a balanced diet. So as long as you know you are feeing your child a balanced diet YANBU.

My two year old eats zero meat. We're not veggies he just won't eat it! He exists on peanut butter and cheese mostly!

I was a veggie from childhood...my mother said i just didn't like the stuff ,she said I refused to open my mouth and that was that...when i was about 9 I did make an ethical decision to become a true vegetarian...as I got older I became less discerning and I eat some meats mostly white meats ...I'll never be a card carrying carnivore just don't have the stomach for it..if you plopped a steak infront of me I would run for the hills!! ...but tbh I was quite healthy as a child..admittedly I did have problems with anemia as an adult but I don't know if this is solely because of my diet ..

Ooh, you can't beat a lovely bit of sizzling bacon. Yum. Looking forward to mine tomorrow now.

Well to be honest, at least everyone here is actively thinking about their childs diet one way or another. Surely the bigger worry would be if you weren't bothered what they ate.

(edam rofl, can't get the vision of that cat trying to gum that cucumber to death out of my head )

Sock, I have tried to explain to the kitten that he is a true carnivore, but he is not impressed.

Polished off my leftover tomato pasta with parmesan last night, then grabbed my second slice of toast with marmite this morning. AND I caught him licking out the empty marmite jar I'd left by the bin for recycling! I can understand cats liking butter and cheese, have had pets with these tastes before, but marmite?

Our cats used to love Marmite too - and margarine and cheese. Must be the savoury taste. I would be more surprised if it went for chocolate!

yanbu, i've been veggie for 23 years, dh isn' but mainly eats veggie at home and dd is mainly although she does eat fish and ham/chicken when we're out sometimes. she goes to a pescetarian nursery.

you can have a perfectly healthy, balanced diet as a vegetarian/vegan whatever your age.

and I'm 34 but people regularly guess my age as between 24-27 and ask how i do it, i tell them it's down to my vegetarian diet

"My DH eats meat. I do draw the line and he is not allowed to have fois gras or veal - but as long as its good quality and he doesn't eat it every meal, I'm fairly relaxed about it. "

sorry but why do you have this power of control over your dh's eating habits?
"not allowed" to have certain foods?presumably he's an adult and can choose to eat what he wants.

It is fair enough that you feed your DC what you eat while he is young. However he isn't a vegetarian he is the DC of a vegetarian and ultimately he will make up his won mind. My feeling is that if you lead by quiet example he will follow but if you are rigid and controlling he will rebel. Everyone is free to make up their own minds-there is no reason they should do it 'because Mummy says so'.
Interestingly my vegan friends were over ysterday. I had said on another thread that their cats were vegetarian so I asked what they ate and I was completely wrong. They looked amazed and said cats were carnivores and had a well known brand of cat food!
I then asked about their DCs. I was under the impression that their DS had gone back to being vegetarian after a teenage rebellion but they said 'God, no-his diet is atrocious!'. Their DD is still vegetarian but married to a man who loves his meat.
You can't control your DCs diet after they get to about 5 yrs and eat away from home. Although it is perfectly healthy to keep him vegetarian when young, you have to accept he may well not agree when older.