I got told today I shouldn’t raise kids because I’d purposefully raise them in a vegan household, without animal products of any sort. I was told this would be dangerous and unfair to the kids.

It was a weirdly direct thing for this person to say to me (one of my coworkers). It’s stuck in my head. I was told I should let my potential children choose what sort of morals they have, even though this person is raising their kids Catholic. Their advice to me was to allow my potential kids to choose every night between a meat-based meal and a vegan meal (???). And several other coworkers agreed. Where do they come up with this? No carnist raises their kids like this.

So is anyone raising vegan kids or does anyone know about what it’s like? Or was anyone here raised in a vegan household?

  • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.netOP
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    3 months ago

    It’s probably abuse to feed a kid the same thing over and over, yeah. But there’s a variety of vegan food I could feed potential kids. I’m vegan and I don’t eat the same thing every night.

    If my kid were sneaking away to eat meat or buy leather or something I’d try talking it over, yeah. Because I earnestly believe in veganism. I don’t think it would result in me giving a kid meat though. I’d probably tell them if they can’t help themselves, just don’t do it around me or tell me about it.

    If at a certain point I’m unable to influence my kid beyond talking it over with them I doubt I’d do anything further though. And after the kid’s an adult there’s nothing I’d could do.

    • RedQuestionAsker2 [he/him, she/her]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      3 months ago

      Sorry, I must have worded this wrong because someone else here interpreted me saying vegan food is boring. That’s not what I mean.

      I’m wondering if it’s abusive to disallow food that a kid likes to eat. In this case, it’s meat. Now, no kid NEEDS meat. It’s just a preference, so there’s no health issue.

      And it’s not a loaded question. I genuinely don’t really know.

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.netOP
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        3 months ago

        I don’t think it’s necessarily abuse to guide what a kid eats. They can’t have Doritos for every meal, even if that’s what they want. I don’t want to have a household that participates in the animal industry, so I’d hope a kid would understand that.

        Also it seems like kids raised vegan might end up with a distaste for meat anyway