5-year old no longer wants to be vegan

[alexsummer123]

What do you do with your kids to make veganism fun?

P.S.-I changed the content of the message because I googled my username and found the whole post and I would rather not have everything public knowledge. Is there anyway to delete the post?

[Korn]

So I'm not sure what to do.

Hi, what about just... doing nothing? At some point kids will grow old enough to make their own decisions about everything, and that's the way it should be...

A lot of things may and will change during the next few years, but if there's anything I can think if which would strengthen her desire to make different decisions than you do, it wold be if her right to make her own decisions aren't respected.

At some later point, it may be worth talking about the complexity of all this, eg. about the fact that if a human decides that an animal shall die so they can eat eat, that animal can't decide anything at all about it's own life anymore.... and so on.

Good luck. :-)

[Clueless Git]

... plus her dad eats meat ...

Best of luck then Alex.

[Lilystein]

Children are usually keen to have what other children have, especially when it comes to food! I wish I knew a easy way to help you with this situation. I think I'd cry if I had a child who didn't want to be vegan. My brother raised his children as vegetarians from birth to 5 and 3 years then suddenly they all became meat eaters, it absolutely broke my heart.

I think for now all you can do is carry on as you are, feed your child lots of lovely delicious food (I'm sure you already do), there's not much point trying to dissuade her or telling her 'no', you're better off just saying 'okay' and changing the subject. If she still feels that way when she's older than let her see the films and documentaries.

I hope it's not distressing you too much right now.

[alexsummer123]

Thank you so much for your empathetic response, Lilystein.

[khadagan]

Hello Alex. Sorry to hear about what your daughter and you are going through at the moment. I have a 6yo daughter and a 2yo son at home, they've been vegan from birth, my partner is vegan as well, so at home it's never been different and I don't want any non-vegan products in the house, so when anyone visits they better not bring non-vegan food to our house! ;)
What I would do is just put my foot down. I don't think that at 5yo they can make an informed decision about what they want and you are still very much responsible what goes into their bodies. I also feel that non-vegan food is very unhealthy, just like I don't like to give my child unhealthy sweets, I have no parts of me that wants to give animal products to my children. Sure, they can make their own decisions, when they're older, quite a bit older and I haven't decided when exactly yet. There are a lot of foods I make that my daughter doesn't like, she is a very picky eater. Some of the kids in her school bring bread with fried sausages at school, chicken nuggets, rice krispy bars, that nasty melted cheese with breadsticks, etc, she wants them too. I say how unhealthy they are and that there is no way I'm giving this to her. She doesn't eating green vegetables either, well as long as I'm responsible for her health she will eat some of it. We speak regularly of why we don't eat animals or their products and how things without animals taste nicer anyway and don't make you sick. Anyway, you are the mother, you make the rules! ;) Good luck X

[alexsummer123]

Thanks so much for your advice!