If you had kids, would they follow a vegan lifestyle?

[TazG]

If you had kids, would you push them into living a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle? If yes than at what age and why, if no then just why.

Personally, if I had kids I'd leave it up to them, if they wanted meat I'd have no problem with that, it's their choice after all, and it's not like giving them meat is unhealthy. On the flipside if they wanted to be vegan/vegetarian, then great, makes life a little easier for me.

[sponge]

I have 3 children and my biggest regret is that I did not go veg sooner so that they would have been raised that way. Fortunately, my two daughters are vegetarians, and my son is seriously working in that direction. I think it is a parent's responsibility that if he/she believes in something, then it should be incorporated into the family life. The vegan lifestyle should be taught to our kids.

[Risker]

If I had kids I would raise them as vegan, I'd no more be pushing them into a vegan diet than someone who raises there kids as non-vegan would be pushing them into there own choice of diet.

[emmapresley]

hmmn tazg..interesting way of phrasing it.

i've two kids, both old enough to make a choice, one chooses to be vegan and the other chooses not to be. at home i cook only vegan, no dairy in the fridge. so maybe i'm forcing what i believe on my child who rejects all things vegan. but.. i work and buy the food, and prepare it and cook it. in the same way as the vast majority of parents far and wide make choices about what to feed their children..as risker says above.
outside of our home, she has more of a choice. i have family people telling me it's too extreme and that she will rebel,and foolishly i listen..but then i think 'sod off'..i don't force my opinions on anyone else, or tell other people what to eat. again..i endlessly find that people 'don't get it'..you all here do 'get it' and i'm grateful to have you all..so i'm not stressing one bit about how i raise my children and how other people stick their (unwanted) opinions in. :)

[lauren_friday]

i'd raise them vegetarian until they asked why they didnt eat meat and then i'd let them eat it once or twice a week if they chose to. i'd let them eat free-range eggs but not dairy products.

[emmapresley]

If you had kids, would you push them into living a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle? If yes than at what age and why, if no then just why.

Personally, if I had kids I'd leave it up to them, if they wanted meat I'd have no problem with that, it's their choice after all, and it's not like giving them meat is unhealthy. On the flipside if they wanted to be vegan/vegetarian, then great, makes life a little easier for me.

tazg..why are you here? :confused:

[vegcurry]

If you had kids, would you push them into living a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle? If yes than at what age and why, if no then just why.

'pushing', that's a highly emotive and loaded term to choose to use isn't it.



Personally, if I had kids I'd leave it up to them, if they wanted meat I'd have no problem with that, it's their choice after all, and it's not like giving them meat is unhealthy. On the flipside if they wanted to be vegan/vegetarian, then great, makes life a little easier for me.

Yes, meat IS unhealthy. There's more than enough research proving how bad it is for you. If you don't believe this then take a look around the forums elsewhere, you could learn something. :)

[gertvegan]

would you push them into living a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle?


it's not like giving them meat is unhealthy.

Interesting 1st post. :confused:

[Korn]

it's their choice after all

Hi,
Are you sure you think you think that a kid should be able to decide over the life and death of an(other) animal? Why do you think it's the kid's, and not the animal's choice if he shall live or not?


As parents, we make choices not only for our kids' present situation, but also re. what kind of habits we give them - and also in terms how how the choices we make on behalf of them will influence their health, the ethical values we signalize in what we do and what we don't, others' health (and lives) - including animals' -, the environment etc.

Offering children the best diet we think they can get (by not adding animal products to their food) isn't more about 'pushing' than not buying cigarettes to a 10-year old would be 'pushing' him to be a non-smoking child...

If you had kids and they would eat a dog, would you say 'it's their choice after all'? I don't think so...

[gertvegan]

i'd raise them vegetarian
Why not vegan? Please elaborate. :confused:

[Heartsease]

Well....for the first years (in the womb and out) the baby is receiving the diet of the mother (and a tiny bit of the father through sperm)....so I would imagine that a child who was vegan from the start would be more than happy to continue eating the foods they were accustomed to. If my child said he'd like to try heroin/throwing himself out of a 4th floor window ,because someone else was trying it, I would like to think I would insist quite firmly that he did not. Until he is an adult I am responsible for providing back-up protection for times when his own choices look to be harmful (but they are usually pretty good). Veganism is pretty much a non-issue for my child since it is 'normal' in our reality.

People seldom seem to ask the same question of non-vegans.

Lauren_friday said " I'd raise them vegetarian until they asked why they did'nt eat meat then I'd let them eat it...".

Asking 'why' is not the same as asking 'for'. I think children use the views of parents and significant people until they have developed their own ability to make adult decisions. That is normal for children. That is not 'forcing' your beliefs onto your child. The time comes when they question the views of those around them and then is the time to find out if your own beliefs can stand up to scrutiny...if you've done your research they will.:)

[cobweb]

meat is very unhealthy for the 'donor' animal :mad: 'nuff said

[sugarmouse]

IfI had kids, I would raise them vegan, as a meat eater tends to raise their kids as meat eaters. I would no way want my child to eat meat

[lauren_friday]

Lauren_friday said " I'd raise them vegetarian until they asked why they did'nt eat meat then I'd let them eat it...". if you look i then said "if they chose to"


the reason i would raise them as ovo-vegetarians (no-dairy) is that dairy is unnecessary, unnatural and has no benefits whereas free-range-eggs from unfertilised hens provide omega 3 and 6 which young children cannot receive from nuts. as they grew up i would phase out the eggs so they were leading a vegan lifestyle til the time came to choose.

[cobweb]

there are plenty of other (better) sources of omegas, lauren - i mix udos oil into my son's ketchup, for instance, and buy vegan marg that is fortified with omegas.

[Korn]

free-range-eggs from unfertilised hens provide omega 3 and 6 which young children cannot receive from nuts

Hi Lauren,
here are some links that may interest you:
Vegan Omega-3 (http://www.veganforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1522)
Omega-3: Flax seeds / linseeds (http://www.veganforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2926)
Free-range products (http://www.veganforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=852)
Vegans and eggs (http://www.veganforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1370)

Since you don't seem to be familiar with vegans' viewpoints re. use of animal products yet, we've changed your account to a Not-A-Vegan-Yet account (for now), but you can still read posts in all areas.

[Heartsease]

Lauren_friday said "If you look I then said 'If they chose to'"

Whoops, Lauren_Friday....I don't know how I missed that. Apple-ogies!:o

[harpy]

My parents "pushed" me to eat meat as a child when I didn't really want to. It would have saved everyone a lot of trouble if they hadn't bothered :D ETA but to be fair 50 years ago there was a bit more excuse for thinking that meat was necessary for health, I suppose.

[Heartsease]

I was "pushed" too, harpy. I can remember my mother saying I could'nt leave the table until I'd eaten my dinner (steak and kidney pie). How do you swallow when you're (w)retching? It's not easy, I can tell you.

[BlackCats]

I remember my mum didn't let me leave the table until I had eaten my omelette when I was younger, I remember thinking it was disgusting when I saw her cracking the eggs to prepare it.

I doubt I will have kids but if I did I would definitely raise them vegan because I'm vegan. I would give them the facts when they were old enough and try to let them form their own opinions.

[sugarmouse]

I had a few untoward incidents when I first went veggie. Including,...my sister feeding me salmon quiche a month after I went vegetarian, for xmas dinner , thinking i was ok with fish. I wasnt, but I ate a small amount of it, and it gave me food poisoning! reeeeeeeallty bad, completely ruined my xmas, so painful and horrible!
Then, staying at my grandmothers, I woke the next morning to the smell of bacon and she nudged me with er elbow and whispered ' you can have a bit o bacon cant you.'
Grr. I jus shook my little head and said no.
She went on couple of times thru the morning, saying 'this bacon smells nice, do you want some?'

Then feeding me meat pie couple of times, and me having to refuse it. It was baffling to me why should she cook meat for me knowin I was a vegetaraian?surely just wasting her time and her food?
But I know now she thought I was going thru some sort of childhood phase. Phase of animal loving.Hmm.

[TazG]

It seems I need to explain my own opinion in a little more detail.

Millions of people eat meat and are perfectly healthy, it is not comparable to taking heroin, tobacco or any other drug.

The reason I wouldn't force my child into a specific lifestyle is because I was forced into a lifestyle myself as a child, and I hated it, I would never wish that upon my own child.

[tipsy]

yeah, my dad still thinks its a phase and i was pretty much raised vegetarian (by my mother)!

whenever i would go visit him he would say "oh youre on vacation, howabout a hotdog? or some calamari? "

like since i was on vacation it didnt count:rolleyes:

[Korn]

Millions of people eat meat and are perfectly healthy, it is not comparable to taking heroin, tobacco or any other drug.
There are lots of documented health issues associated with consuming meat and other animal products...


The reason I wouldn't force my child into a specific lifestyle is because I was forced into a lifestyle myself as a child, and I hated it, I would never wish that upon my own child.
So if you give a child vegan food, you are 'forcing' him, but if you add some eggs to his diet, you are not? Please explain...

If you start to give eggs to a baby you are making a decision on behalf of two other sentient beings; a baby, who hasn't asked for eggs, and and a hen, who is over-producing eggs because her eggs are taken away from her.

[TazG]

So if you give a child vegan food, you are 'forcing' him, but if you add some eggs to his diet, you are not? Please explain...

He would be raised vegan, until he was old enough to choose, and by that I mean old enough to actually be able to ask if he can eat meat.