Your opinions on...?

Question

What do you guys think about vegetarians/vegans bringing up their kids the same way?

Personally I think it's taking away the child's decision, but if (and when they're old enough ) they would like to be a vegetarian/vegan I would support them 100%. Even if they decided to continue to eat meat I would still support them.

Answer 1

My mum, despite being a vegetarian, brought me up eating meat because she wanted to give me the choice, and it's something that I admire her hugely for - since making my own choices I have become a vegan.

However, having spoken to other vegan friends about the possibility of having kids in the future, we seemed to be in agreement that we couldn't bring ourselves to do it. We all believe passionately that it is wrong to eat meat and would be unwilling to use our money to buy or our time to prepare something we believe is so cruel. We could never see it as a loving action towards our child to present them with a dead animal.

Furthermore, there is an argument going around (make of it what you will) that because of the health implications of eating meat, it is a form of child abuse to feed a child meat (I think it was Peta that came up with that one).

In my opinion the right of a fully sentient being to life over-rides the right to choose a different tasting meal, and as such even though I would love to give my child the choice as my mum did for me, I couldn't bring myself to support the industry in the name of my child.

Answer 2

I think there is nothing wrong with raising kids to be vegetarian, when they get old enough to make there own choices and if they decide to eat meat later on then thats up to them.

Here are more examples...

Parents raise and bring up their children to believe in chistianity, judaism, buddhism etc etc is this taking a child's decision away too? when they get older they can change what they believe if they want.....

Now lets say the parents are smokers and decide its ok to rais their kids around smoke... Now this is what I call unfair and wrong, and on top of that now the kids have a much higher chance to pick up on the bad habit. I am sure we can all agree on that.

Parents decide all kinds of things (thats what parrents do lol) like when kids go to bed, what friends they can or can't have, what time they have to be home by, what movies and TV shows thay are alowed to watch... I could go on and on with all the decisions parents make for their children. And every family raises their kids in different ways and to believe different thing. Should raising your children to do what you think is right be considered unfair?

I don't think so anyway..

When the kids are old enough to start making their own choices, then you guid them and support them! Thats the way it works.

Answer 3

I think it's no different then raising a child as a meat eater, a Catholic, or a Pagan. The very act of parenting requires you to take away some of the child's decisions for their own safety, or for reasons the parents deem to be acceptable. A vegetarian child has the right, and ability to choose to eat meat later in life, just as the Catholic child has the ability to become a Pagan.

Answer 4

I think its just fine, as long as its done responsibly. I don't think it takes away from their decision process any more than the parent that feeds their child fastfood six times a week. Eventually they may decide they want to try McDonalds on their own anyway, and they MAY like it. That is free chioce.
If the parents don't know how to go vegetarian and just start feeding their child beansprouts daily, then they are being irresponsible. Learning to properly balance any diet is the key to healthy living. That is the most important lesson they can teach their children.

Answer 5

i think it's great! but if the child decides to eat meat later in life, then that is their decision. they need some freedom to choose their life style. i'm 14 and became a vegetarian 2-3 months ago, my mom let me take on that if i wanted too. that's the freedom i'm talking about.

Answer 6

i'm all for having kids be vegetarians if i had kids i would probably wait until they were 3 or 4 years old to let them make their own decision but before that i wouldn't let them consume any meat

Answer 7

Taking away their choice? To the contrary. Look at it from this perspective: feeding a child meat is taking away their choice to be vegetarian. But bringing a child up as a vegetarian still allows them the choice to eat meat when they are old enough to make that decision.

Quite frankly, the ignorance of nutrition around here is getting tiresome. Vegetarian diets are not unhealthy. People who eat meat tend to be lacking in more nutrients than vegetarians. Vegetarian diets are appropriate for ALL life stages.

From the ADA/DC Position on Vegetarian Diets:

"Well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence. Vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits, including lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein as well as higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidants such as vitamins C and E and phytochemicals. Vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than nonvegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; vegetarians also show lower blood cholesterol levels; lower blood pressure; and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer"

Given this, it would appear that you would be doing your kid a favor by not feeding them meat. One option includes higher rates of disease than the other. What would you choose for your child?

Answer 8

i imagine human beings might want to be at liberty to have the opinion that they opt for. they should have the ability to convey there opinion, and those who pay interest (which should be lots of folk) must have an open recommendations, and perchance substitute there opinion. some reviews gained't become some thing, besides the undeniable fact that it doesnt mean there worthless. inspite of if no one treasures your opinion, you should. Its what makes you who you're.

Answer 9

With my son I will support him if he decides to go vegan when hes older (hes only 2 now). im actually thinking of going vegan.

Answer 10

Somebody asked here recently if anybody who'd been raised vegetarian resented it.

There was a pretty unanimous "no."

What decision? It seems odd to present something as food to a baby and call it a "decision" on the baby's part.

And, for some people, it's just not a realistic option. Never having eaten meat myself, I'm -- suddenly going to learn how to cook something that I find gross? Imagine it's tasty and well-prepared when I'm not about to taste it myself? That doesn't make much sense.

Note, too:

"In the newly updated edition of the noted pediatrician's landmark book, "Baby and Child Care," Spock, who died in March, advocates a vegetarian diet for children and urges parents not to give them milk or other dairy products after the age of 2."
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9806/20/dr.spock/index.html?eref=sitesearch

An incredible number of kids were raised a la Dr Spock. I find the milk prohibition a bit odd, but not altogether ridiculous. (I wouldn't. I think dairy's too delicious. But everybody, vegans, vegetarians, omnivores, have their junk foods.)

I'm pregnant, and this has been discussed, and it's just not a realistic option to feed the kid meat. The stuff really disgusts me -- on an aesthetic level, not so much a moral one. It would be rather disturbing, I'd think, when the kid was old enough to start asking questions to have to explain why meat wasn't good enough for Mum, but it was okay for him to eat. Most of the stuff on the market is garbage anyway -- hormone-riddled fatty junk.

The answer claiming it's difficult to get a balanced vegetarian diet, that there's some argument for it from a health standpoint, is ridiculous for vegetarians. Undoubtedly rather a trial for vegans, but.

All that said, I do not plan on freaking out if the kid tries a hot dog at a birthday party. My father ate meat (admittedly in rather reduced quantities); it wasn't completely absent from where I grew up, and I was allowed to try it, but it just didn't appeal.

It is thoroughly easy for me to be a vegetarian. It's also been easy for my siblings to incorporate some limited amounts of meat (mostly fish, some poultry, and one eats fairly omnivorously now) into their diets. But look at all the questions that show up in this area from people who want to go vegetarian as teens/adults, and how much trouble they have with it...

And, not to say that all vegetarians eat healthy food, but -- I've always been amazed at how much better my diet is than the majority's. When I was a kid and getting old enough to eat at friends' houses, I was regularly horrified at the junk they ate. White bread! Soda pop with dinner! Eeek! And a vegetable dish is a potato or corn -- yikes. It seemed, to me at the time, clearly not a good idea to be like them.

Really, I think a lot of it comes down to the insanity of having to explain why meat was good enough for the kid but not the parent(s). "I think it's bad for your health, is very questionable ethically, thoroughly unappetizing, etc, but decided to give it to you" -- eh? That'd screw a kid up more than anything else that comes to mind. Given that I can't cook the stuff, I'd be looking at the worst sorts of meat, too. Nope.