I got told today I shouldn't raise kids because I'd purposefully raise them in a vegan household, without animal products of any sort. I was told this would be dangerous and unfair to the kids.
It was a weirdly direct thing for this person to say to me (one of my coworkers). It's stuck in my head. I was told I should let my potential children choose what sort of morals they have, even though this person is raising their kids Catholic. Their advice to me was to allow my potential kids to choose every night between a meat-based meal and a vegan meal (???). And several other coworkers agreed. Where do they come up with this? No carnist raises their kids like this.
So is anyone raising vegan kids or does anyone know about what it's like? Or was anyone here raised in a vegan household?
Id suggest you sarcastically highlight their idiotic hypocrisy (do they cook vegan meals for their children every night? Do they sincerely think you should cook three meals - vegan, vegetarian and carnist - every night? Do they think "eating meat" means they have to eat meat every day?) but you probably have to spend a lot of time with them since they're your coworkers and it sounds like they're idiots that won't listen, so I wouldn't bother.
Whatever you can do that shuts them up the fastest and makes them leave you alone, is what I think you should do.
Alternatively get pamphlets from every religious denomination and give them to their kids if you ever meet them - they want them to have choice, right?
their criticisms of raising a vegan kid more put into perspective how the social aspect of that would be. I realized people would consider me abusive for having a vegan family. I think that's nonsense but it would be difficult to navigate accusations like that. Plus I started to get anxious about if my child would potentially get bullied.
I can understand getting anxious about that, but I don't really see how it tracks.
I guess I can understand in a sort of "don't freak out if your kid has some meat when eating at a friend's place" but it doesn't really sound like that's what they're saying. It sounds like they're saying you have a moral failing for being vegan and having a vegan household, and that's just not true.
if your kid is otherwise vegan, suddenly eating meat out of nowhere at their friends house even once is actually a big deal since the gut bacteria can’t handle it if they aren’t gradually attuned to it, so a freak out is warranted
Yeah good point. I guess I was moreso meaning in the "had little a salami" and not "ate a whole steak" kinda way
I just appreciated that your coworker is catholic. That means they definitely gave a catholic guilt button. A lot of antivegan attitude, dressed up as social concern like this or otherwise, is just an expression of people's own guilt about the contradiction between what they know about what they eat and their self image as a Good Person. If you shift the terrain of the discussion away from peer pressure etc and onto more solid ground (I want to raise my child with strong morals, veganism is a strong part of my morals, cruelty to animals is clearly immoral) then you're either going to reach this person or get them to shut the fuck up. This criticism of you is clearly a reflection of their own insecurity, so the more you can turn this around on them the better.
read them vegancirclejerk every night and your child will get bullying superpowers. If this person is raising their kids Catholic aren't they also making meatless meals on Friday?
There's no moral argument to raise kids with omni Western pattern diet instead of any other diet, it just has to be healthy and tasty. You can't practically prevent them from eating animals outside the home, but you can make it clear to them why they shouldn't and that you'll be disappointed if they do, like how you'll tell them not to do drugs or steal cars.
Go for broke, start telling their kids whenever they eat meat an animal is killed for that
I live in an area where by the time a kid is 8 years old, they've probably already shot and eaten an animal at least once. So I don't know how well that would work.
Killing an animal with one's bare hands is considered a normal aspect of life here