Raising kids vegetarian?

Bringing your children up veggie is the greatest gift you can give them.

My son has been veggie and on off vegan since birth, he is so much more healthier than his meat eating friends. Hardly ever got sick- he is now 15 and never wants to eat meat and thanks me for our lifestyle..

For healthy happy kids, keep dead animals out of there diet.

 

That's not entirely correct. I was a vegetarian and now I eat a bit of meat again. I do this because I was worried about fatigue I was dealing with, my doctor insisted it was because of the lack of nutrients meat brings.

I feel a lot better these days. I play a lot of sports and I am supposing your son doesn't, and if he does then he'll end up seeing his GP like I did by eighteen. You're so much more nimble as a young teenager.

 

That's not entirely correct? excuse me do uno me? I beg to differ ...

This is your life and Im commenting on mine- I hope thats ok with you?

 

Hmm...if you dont want a lion to eat you play nice at the zoo and dont sunbathe on a rock in the African Savannas. Pretty simple.

A few things.....
1. Children can be raised veg and be perfectly healthy. My daughter is lacto/ovo and gets plenty of protein and iron through eggs, lentils,peanut butter, chickpeas, tofu, tempeh, cashews, almonds, pumpkin seeds, kale, chard, brocoli, spinach, etc....the trick is to start them young so they grow up eating healthy alternatives and develop a taste for it.

2. Of course your children are going to be indoctrinated with shit from you weither you realize it or not. They become you in a sense! My daughter has taken on all my weird little mannerisms and she talks just like me too. I never forced that onto her....children are sponges...they become their environment. So...I think you may be overthinking things. If your lady wants to raise them veg and you dont care then let her raise them veg but maybe you two can come to an agreement that when the kids are old enough they can make their own decision. They're not going to hate you for depriving them of meat for a few years...neither would they hate you for feeding them meat if they later decided they wanted to be veg...either way it's going to be a learning experience for them.

 

FYI: I'm moving this to the Vegetarian forum, and since this is as much an issue of parenting as it is about vegetarianism, I copied this to the Parenting Forum.

 

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. How is it "indoctrination" for someone to want to raise a kid as a vegetarian but it's somehow not indoctrination to want to raise a kid as an omnivore? Either way, you're picking out your child's diet for him and her without explicit consent. Just saying. I'm totally confused by this argument. I don't care what people do, but I'm so tired of this whole indoctrination issue coming up when speaking of vegetarians... Um, parents are going to make choices for their kids either way, that doesn't make your choice any more valid than hers.

 

You can call it indoctrination/teaching/bring them up, whatever you want. The issue in my mind is that you should teach children things that are clearly a black and white issue, and let them decide the other things, that are more of a personal preference, on their own. Whatever else you want to inject into it that's what it comes down to.

Is murder bad? Yes. Teach them that murder is bad. (black and white)
Should you go to college? who the fuck knows, depends on what you want to do with you life.... they should decide on their own.
Should you be a vegetarian? Who knows, you should decide on your own.

Stop taking your crazy pills.

 

Soon enough you will realize that you will be obligated to make decisions for your child that are not so black and white.

Do you really think it is a good idea to let a child make his or her own decisions regarding diet? Maybe when they are teens, otherwise you should be the one making those decisions. A child will chose based on taste. You should choose based on nutrition. You can spend a day at the library or on the internet to figure that there is no danger in not consuming meat.

This is not a moral issue for your child, there is no need to teat it like one. If you do your job you child will not be a 'vegetarian', rather a healthy child who doesn't consume meat in your home. Presented with both your and your wife's opinions your child will grow to see that it can choose its own path.

 

That's just like saying making kids eat meat isn't letting them make up their own mind to not eat meat.

A kid can't make up its own mind until it's old enough
In the meantime the parent makes the choice. They have to.
Whichever choice the parent makes, the kid can change it when they're older. One is not better than the other in this respect. Why isn't "making" a child eat meat indoctrination and pushing your views just as much as not giving them meat? There's no difference except one approach is taken by the majority and one isn't. Being what the majority of people do has never made an action definitely "right".

I'm not going to get all pissed off about the fact that my mother fed me meat when I was little. What matters is she allowed me not to at the age of 12 when I decided I didn't want to anymore.
It's exactly the same for a vegetarian child. Should they reach an appropriate age and decide they want meat, this should be allowed. There's no difference there and neither approach is indoctrination or taking away choice.