Vegan starting Preschool

[SJ1204]

Hi everyone,

Soon my daughter who was raised vegan from birth will be starting a preschool. The thing I'm slightly worried about is what they are going to teach her. I talk about the importance of being vegan but I know they aren't going to. They are going to tell her all about zoo's and farms in positives ways and that's not going to really teach her what is happening. I don't want to be at war with schools etc but not sure how to go about this. Also some places won't allow packed lunch so I've had to cancel them out completely. There vegan meals they say they have don't seem very nice and I don't want a hungry child. Any thoughts on this or experiences?

Well I'm checking out before there are more critical posters weighing in because vegetarianism triggers them. As if mothers of veggie children actually want them to be miserable etc. We just choose compassion in a way that makes sense to us, and try to be led by our children. No one telling anyone else how to parent, but we always get the criticism.

So I'm unwatching this thread now.

By the way, my veggie child is thriving and I'm very proud of her ability to understand that some beings have a better life than others, and I'm also proud of her desire to say hello to the animals she knows are not having a nice time, regardless. Babies and toddlers are amazing.

Best regards

@littleredberries I don't think anyone has questioned whether any vegetarian or vegan children are thriving or not on this thread have they? Can you give an example of the criticism?

I'm sure that you can objectively see that you saying your child was aware that animals were unhappy when they were 6 months old may be extremely unusual. I'm sure your child is amazing and I'm sure they'll grow up amazing, whether they eat bacon or not.

@ChairmansReserve

Raising a lacto-veggie child. Live next to a conventional pig/chicken farm. We visit the farm every day. We have permission from the farmer. I show her the conditions the animals are kept in. Without prompt, she's been sad and confused every time she sees the animals, from when she was six months old. But she still insists on going every day to say good morning to them.

This is the most unintentionally hilarious paragraph ever written.

Ah but she's a very advanced child - in the next post it is also explained that she is now 15 months old and 'intuitively understands' what is going on.

As for op, I do sympathise as even bringing up my children as vegetarian has had its challenges at times. As others say, it's good to go in with a collaborative approach to staff, I would also say to be really careful for both your and your DD's sake about being seen to be judgemental. I ran into issues with my dc2 telling other children, who had been very excited to go to the zoo for their birthday, that zoos are bad and cruel places - it really upset them and made parent relationships difficult too. In hindsight I needed to be clearer on the importance of tolerance and listening to other people's views, and probably a bit specific on what was and wasn't ok to say to other 3 year olds.

My niece has been vegan from birth. She came to my husband's birthday party with her grandmother. I had bought food especially for her. She ate everything including the birthday cake. Her brother refused to be vegan from an early age. You can't force your views on your children.

[quote littleredberries]@Warmduscher as I said, she insists on saying good morning to the animals. But she knows the difference between the horses enjoying the pastures and the pigs stuck in pens.
The pigs really respond to our visits as the only other contact they get is from the farmers. We are allowed to bring them carrots, and she enjoys feeding them. My 15m old intuitively understands what is going on, as she sees the older groups leave and the younger ones come in. She still insists on saying hello.
Furthermore, the whole village can hear transportation day as the pigs scream. It's unavoidable.

You parent the way YOU want to. Etc[/quote]
I agree that parents should parent in the way that’s right for their child.

That’s why I’m puzzled as to why you’d let your very young child make the decision to visit a place daily that makes her upset and confused, rather than taking charge as a parent and - looking at how it impacts negatively on her every day - making the decision that you’ll visit once a week, or less often.

And what happens if the child of a farming family talks to your child?
Surely if you don't want your child exposed to certain things don't send them to nursery rather than try and get nursery to change what they do?

OP I think you're being too dogmatic about this. Your DC will hear all sorts of things from all sorts of people/sources - you can't control that, you can't dictate what others say, you can only control what you tell your DC.
I'm a vegan and my DC have been from birth too. We've never had a problem with nursery, pre-school or school. We tell them we're vegan, and they provide vegan food. If DC don't eat it for whatever reason, we just fill them up when they get home. We are flexible, because mistakes are easy to make, if they served DC something non-vegan we wouldn't even bring it up (unless it was happening a lot). Vegans have a bad name for being judgmental, demanding and dogmatic, and we want to try to undo that as much as we can. Good luck OP - don't create problems before they begin, just see how things go and if problems arise, deal with them constructively in partnership with the pre-school.

As your child gets older I think you’ll have to accept that she’s exposed to viewpoints other than your own - in all areas of life.

As your child gets older I think you’ll have to accept that she’s exposed to viewpoints other than your own - in all areas of life.