Do you enforce your vegetarian life style choice on your children?!
Do you enforce your vegetarian life style choice on your children?
Answers:
I don't have children but if and when i do it would depend on my partner. if my partner ate meat then there would be no reason to not cook it for my children too. but if my partner was veggie too then i would probably give them a veggie diet until they were old enough to decide for themselves. My family eat meat and when i decided to be veggie 12 years ago there was no issues and i would feel the same if my children wanted to eat meat. Being veggie is my choice and i don't expect others to agree. However I'm not sure you needed to use the word enforce. i doubt you would consider a meat eating parent giving a child meat enforcing it. But I'll just take it that it was a bad use of words :)
no
My friend's parents did that to her when we were kids. She would sneak meat everytime she came to my house.
She inhales meat to this day. She had a cocktail party a few months ago. Every hors d'voures was meat based.
No way! They are their own people!
If I were a vegatarian then when my child was young then yes they would follow my lifestyle of eating only vegetarian food, but as they grew older I certainly wouldn't forbid them from eating meat or other products. I personally eat meat, but I know and agree with the reasons not to eat meat.
Yes I do. Actually, there is no "enforcement" needed. Children are naturally drawn to a vegetarian diet.
Our bodies are actually designed to better break down vegetable matter than Meat products.
no but only because i don't have any.
not sure why you're using the term 'enforce' - couldn't this equally apply to ominvore life style choice? as long as parents give their children a healthy balanced diet that's all that should matter - enforcing an oven chips and 'beef' burger diet would be worse nutritionally.
have big issues with the 'enforce' word... there are so many more worse things that could be 'enforced'...
I agree with ffkali, even though I don't agree with the idea. As a parent you do what is best for your children, and if you were a veggie, you'd think that was best, hell I don't think that, but as long as they didn't ban kids from eating meat. OK they prepare a meal, and it'll be veggie, but they can't then stop the kid popping out for some KFC.
I am not a vegetarian, and I don't agree with it, but I don't force my children to eat meat; dietary choices including vegetarianism should be choice led and it shouldn't be an ethos which is dictated from a parental figure.
My friend is a vegetarian- she does not like to handle or cook meat but does not make her children abstain- she just does not cook it herself. Her husband makes bacon sandwiches sometimes and the kids eat meat out of the home- at restaurants and with friends.
No, I don't. Though my mum forced a meat eating life style on me and would go mad if I didn't eat the meat. I sooo wanted to be a vegetarian. I used to take the meat from the meat dish onto my plate and drop it to the cat when no one was watching.
I later became a vegetarian and my daughter( aged 10) said she wanted to try it too...I was worried because she was a really picky eater so I took her to see the nurse who explained about healthy eating (she wouldn't have listened to me!), and she's been vegetarian ever since. She's now 22. My son said he'd like to try it for a month...he's still a vegetarian (24), my husband also became vegetarian around about the same time....he says he could never eat meat now.
If my kids went back to meat...that's fine, it's their choice. Maybe me becoming vegetarian had an influence on my children but I never suggested they should do it.
Both of my sons were raised Vegan ..not just vegetarian..for ethical reasons..the fact that vegetarians live healthier and 8-10 years longer then meat eaters say a lot ..my older son is healthy 6 foot ,intelligent and attractive..he is married to a beautiful vegan woman and they have a 2 year old vegan son ..my second son is 5 "10 also very healthy and strong at this point still dating many girls most of whom become and stay vegetarians... It would be as foreign for them to eat an animal as most people to eat their (or a neighbors) pet ..they never had a desire to eat animal flesh ...and I guess I won't get graphic but all the statistics back me up..when the younger one was in kindergarten he told the children what meat actually was and no one wanted to eat it ..children have no idea that their hamburger was once a living cow killed to make food for them .. tell kids the truth..see what happens....SO Enforce NO ....but for the right reasons no need to
Why let your child become a carnivore.....say no to meat for your child too....
I don't have kids, so I can't really say, but if I do have kids, yes, I will. It's the same as when people raise their kids on meat...when they are old enough, they can make their own decisions.
When and if I have children, I plan to get all the knowledge necessary to raise them in a vegetarian/vegan home. As they grow, I also plan to teach them about where the "food" they see in school and in other kids' lunches comes from. I want them to be informed and know why I make the lifestyle choices I do.
However, whether the child chooses to eat dead animals when s/he is older is up to him/her. My home will be cruelty-free, but I cannot stop him/her for choosing her own lifestyle.
Because reasons for vegetarianism are morally and ethically based, I think it would be similar to raising a child in specific religion. You raise your child in Catholicism because you feel it is best for him/her... you hope you child chooses this path because you feel it is better. But in the end, you cannot stop your child from being Buddhist, Atheist, Agnostic or Jewish, and you should respect the decision.
I think that you worded this question in a very loaded way, but I will answer it. My kids will eat what I eat when they are in my home. That means no meat. If they ever decide that they want to eat meat when they are older, that is their business, but it won't come from me.
Children tend to be moulded by what adults and their parents eat, so if it's what they know they don't miss meat. of course it will depend on what age the children are. If they've grown up with the diet, they're used to it and accept it as the norm. I'm a vegetarian, and i have no children, but i would probably bring them up as veggies, and they could make up their own minds when they were older and i wouldn't judge them.
I like the answers most people are giving. Enforce is really not a good word. My family eats what I cook...unless they want to fire me and take over the task :)
I eat meat..but wouldn't *enforcer* that on anyone either..
Though I desagree with the person who said our bodies are better able to break down veggies.
That is not true. Ever hear the expression *chew your vegetables*? Well, that is because our enzymes *cannot* break down the cell wall of veggies. In order to get the vitamins...we have to chew and crush them.
I don't care what people choose to eat..but I hate when they give misleading and unture information...
Weird how this would come up in a section full of
"I'm 12, and want to be a vegetarian. My parents are trying to force me to eat meat. Help!!!"
Yes, yes yes yes. If what it is that i am doing for my children is for their health i must enforce it. It is just like telling your children to eat meat. You enforce it because you do it, because it is good for you therefor good for them. Whether parents know it or not parents enforce all of their likes and dislikes on their children.