Vegan forum for children

[cookey]

Is anyone aware of a forum for vegan children? Or could we start one here?
I know my daughters would like to chat with other vegan children. We have used Vegan Buddies, but there's not as much traffic there.

[catmogg]

I think this is a great idea. It might be pretty isolating for a child to be vegan so it would be really great for them to feel part of a wider community.

[aubergine]

I think the danger with a specifically 'kids' forum is that people might target them.

How about a membership level on a forum such as this, where you can only access the normal area and a kids area?

That way it can be supervised. PMs would also need to be disabled for unfortunate but obvious reasons.

[cookey]

Yes, I did wonder about the safety issue. There do seem to be some quite young people on here anyway, I'm sure I have seen some people who are under 16.
My girls are aged 6 and 8. The 8 year old is quite into the internet and would enjoy putting up messages for other children. I imagined that I would oversee this to some extent. I suppose there might then be issues of her wanting to say things about me but then me being able to read them!
It is always possible for an adult to pose as a child anyway I suppose but the moderators here seem very good as far as I can tell.

[cookey]

and also, there are some posts on here that it wouldn't be apropriate for children to read.

[Maisiepaisie]

There's one here that my son uses. Its for vegan and veggie kids.

[cookey]

Thanks MP. This seems to be a teenage site which might be suitable when they're a bit older.

[Risker]

Not so comfortable with the use of the word cult all over that site.

[Lilac Hamster]

This one is a bit quiet at the moment, it is run by Lucy from Aberdeenshire who has the Veganfamily.co.uk website, her kids are a bit older than yours.
If your daughters post on there someone might answer hopefully, I think some might be still around,

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vegkidslinkup

Are there no other vegan families near you? We try to do something fairly regularly with a few other vegan families in London and as you also live in a city it should be possible for you to do the same and start your own vegan families gatherings and/or family-friendly gatherings with non-parents also welcome. I believe there is a local group in your area now but maybe so far no other families have joined up?

Have you put yourselves on the Vegan Society's vegan families contact list? (I don't have an up to date copy so don't know who is on the list these days).

My key suggestion would be for you to consider volunteering yourself to be "families contact person" for your local vegan group, which would in turn very likely end up attracting more families to the group.

The problem with some vegan/veggie groups is that although they are very good in many ways and well organised and sociable, if they are being run by non-parents they often do not think about including and welcoming families and tend to promote themselves in a way that attracts solely other non-parents (just as we as a small local veg and vegan group have tended to attract mostly families, even though we definitely welcome not only families). So then it follows that many vegan families will know there is a local vegan group but will be very hesitant to come forward. They might not know if the group will be welcoming to families unless someone (like you) ensures that they do a few family-friendly gatherings! It's most likely that it never occurs to most of the people running local groups that there is a need for a family-friendly element to their group, simply because it is outside of their usual realm of experience if they don't have kids of their own!! I don't know what your local vegan group is like, but I imagine they will probably work with you on this if you are willing to get involved in pitch in, not expect THEM to make it family-friendly, but offer to do most of the work to make it so.

I've actually had the exact opposite problem locally, finding that non-parents were not coming along as some of them thought that only families would be welcome to our local veggie and vegan meet ups! But we tend to get more new non-parents along now which is great, as we always wanted to create a balanced local veggie and vegan social group!

The Reading area Thames Valley group seem to have the balance perfect between evening events and family-friendly stuff from what I can see.

Hope this idea of working with the local group helps you to find other vegan families in your area! Many vegan families most certainly live in your city, you just need to find them, have you put up any notices anywhere like independent health food shops notice boards asking other vegan families to get in touch with you? That might be a good start too.

We found it has been easier than we expected to find other vegan families, so you should find the same in your city once you make yourself known!

Good luck!

[Korn]

Is anyone aware of a forum for vegan children? Or could we start one here?
I know my daughters would like to chat with other vegan children. We have used Vegan Buddies, but there's not as much traffic there.

Maybe a good start would be to have them start a thread in the Kids-subfoum, with a title showing that it's a thread for children?

[cookey]

Thanks for all the suggestions.
Lilac Hamster - I think I have trouble with Yahoo before on my computer, but will try again.
We do have alocal group. It's quite new. Ellen who organises it has been very sympathetic to doing things that my kids can come to. The last event was a picnic. It was just badly timed so that it was the day after I'd been to Vegan Biker boys party! The kids did come later as they'd been with my dad. The next one is a BBQ and also suitable, but they'll be away camping with my dad!
I'm a single parent and work full time so a lot of our time seems to be taken up with keeping the house together, shopping etc. I don't think I can take on the responsibility of being a contact, although I am on the families list.
As the kids see me on the forums, I thought it might be a good way for them to contact other kids as well.
Korn - I will get my eldest to register here and supervise her time on the forum, check any PM's etc. She can then start a thread. If anyone knows of any vegan kids or kids of vegan's, maybe they can get them to join in too?

[Korn]

Are there anyone else out there who have any comments or suggestions before we start a new 'Children' account? Which areas do you think they should have access to etc.?

[psychocandy]

They could have access to the movies and music area also? not sure what else suppose it depends on the age of the child to what they should be able to view?

[Korn]

Age? From they can read and write enough to communicate in a forum until they are teens (we have a separate Teen-subforum)...

[cookey]

I wonder if it is possible to make the children's part open to children who have one or more vegan parents, even if they are not vegan themselves?
I can see quite a few posts on here from parents who have gone vegan but their children are still in transition. Or the child may be vegan with one parent but not with the other - this is the case with one of my children.

[cookey]

Any progress on this yet? Are children able to register on their special membership?

[emmapresley]

can i 'bump' this?

my daughter would be interested in creating an account and posting..i personally think if a 'child's' section was to be made..ie under 11's, then initially keep it just to that section to build up to sub sections that're relevant to them.

i don't know if there is enough interest? but if parents with vegan/near vegan children were to encourage..?

[cookey]

My eldest (age nearly 9) has an account set up and posted on the vegan children's forum here last year. So if yours wants to post, I'm sure she'd happily reply EP!
There seem to be very few children around here tho, only parents!

[emmapresley]

true enough cookey..but there are parents who might want to get their children involved??

[cookey]

Well, yes you would think so, but I first posted about it back in August last year and there's been very little response, certainly no other children posting. Also no reasons given why people may or may not want their children to post so it all came to a bit of a halt.

[Lilac Hamster]

I'm really sorry about being so useless over this, will have to ask mine what they think!

[Cherry]

Just a thought...if people are unsure about their children posting or if the children are too young to be able to get to grips with a forum with quite a few people on it, how about a thread where parents can set their children up with a penpal or two? They could pm each other their kids' details so they could email or msn each other, or send vegan care packages It might be a bit less overwhelming for the kids too, if they're just responding to one or two people.