My major issue is that I'm vegetarian but my wife isn't & she wants our kids (when we have them) to eat meat..

Question

Have any of you had such an experience? What did you do?
***I'd prefer only serious answer - just curious to gather knowledge from others on this.

Answer 1

There are two ways you could look at it.

For everyone who says "get over it" and "let your kids decide", how many religious people "let their kids decide"? And most of the people who have answered forced Omnivorism on their kids. If this is a moral and/or health issue, then your view is just as valid as hers. In that case, the two of you will have to sit down and work it out part of it may depend on. . .

Who does the cooking.? If your wife cooks and will be cooking for your children, then it will be hard to enforce a no-meat diet unless you take up the cooking for them full time. However, if you are primary caregiver, then obviously, it will be much easier.

Seeing as how its perfectly healthy to raise a child vegetarian, if you are adamantly against them eating meat, then you need to address this with your wife. Idealogical differences won't get better if left to fester. You can't expect to bring the kid home from the hospital and wait until she's buying strained veal for the kids to have a serious discussion. Collect info on raising vegetarian children and give it to her. Once all her fears and misconceptions are gone, let her know that if it's all the same to her, you'd rather them be vegetarian. And tell her you'd be mortified to learn that she was sneaking them meat when you weren't looking.

Good luck to you and I hope that you are able to come to some aggreement. : )

Answer 2

I would have a very hard time being married to someone who knew all I know about health and the animal product industries and still wanted to eat meat. I don't think I could do it.

I would get your wife the book THE CHINA STUDY. It's only been out a year or two. The guy who wrote it has been a researcher for decades and is a nutrition professor at Cornell. He was involved with MANY of the major studies in nutrition that shaped what we know about nutrition today. He was a major advocate for high protein diet until he started looking at some of the results and dug a little deeper with his own research into animal proteins and then with this study in China that was HUGE (the biggest nutrition study ever) - he came to the conclusion (and has data to back it up) that animal proteins cause much of the disease we experience in the western world. In both animal and human studies he was able to halt cancer and in some cases even reverse it. Same with heart disease. The book is pretty broad - it goes over a lot of diseases and touches on numerous studies (done by him and also by other researchers) that provide a ton of evidence that ANIMAL PRODUCTS ARE AWFUL FOR US. If she reads that book and still wants to feed her children animal products I would be surprised.
Check it out. You can get it on Amazon.
http://thechinastudy.com

Answer 3

If you wanted to eat meat and were told you couldn't by the people you loved the most what would you think? It should be the childrens choice, if they express an opinion then listen, guide them as a responsible and caring adult, then when they reach their conclusion let them do what they want. Whilst they are too young to decide keep them healthy and nurture them the best body you can for when they're older. If you decide that the best body would be free from meat and the associated toxins then make sure that the body they have is a good quality vegetarian one, if you think that the best body would be a good quality carnivorous one with extra growth and aggressive disposition give them that. Any body replces itself every 5 years up until your about 20 so if you pull the wrong straw your kids can fix it when they decide.

Answer 4

It doesn't sound like the question is about meat or not. Nevertheless...

Kids take awhile to eat solid food. So you have lots of time with this issue.

You could let the child decide by giving a taste of each baby food and see what they will eat.

Last thing you want is the child to be in the middle of a tug of war between the parents. So letting the child decide could be a neutral answer...

Answer 5

Ultimately it is something that you and your wife have to decide on, no one on yahoo answers can make up your mind for you. But I will say this, if and when my boyfriend have children, they will be raised vegetarian, if not vegan. I have told my omni boyfriend this, and he knows that it is something I WILL NOT waiver on.

I was raised vegetarian, and my brother and I are some of the healthiest people I know. All this about children 'needing' the nutrients from meat is hogwash. I have never felt 'deprived', nor have I ever felt like my parents forced their diet on me.

I believe in comprimise in a relationship, but the health of my children is not something worth comprimising.

Answer 6

I think this is something that you and your wife will have to decided on, hopefully before you have children. I know when I have children I want them to be raised as a vegetarian. Weather my future spouse eat meat or not is up to them, but since my diet is based on my personal beliefs and meat eaters are simply eating to satisfy their taste buds, to me it makes more sense that I should have the right to bring up my child as a vegetarian and instill what I believe about the health benefits, etc of a vegetarian diet. As they get older and can reasonably make the decision themselves to continue on the vegetarian diet or eat meat, I will support what ever they choose.

I think it is like religion, I was raised in the religion my mother believed was right, when I got older I decided the religion didn't fit my needs, and now believe in no formal religion. If in the future my spouse wishes to raise our children in the faith they were raised I would not object since my spouses religious beliefs may be important to them and what they truly believe, as opposed to my spirituality which is not that strong.

Answer 7

I'm sure it's not the answer you're hoping for, but I gave up. My husband wasn't a vegetarian, (neither was I when we married) and didn't want to change his habits. In the end I did it his way and raised my children on a non-vegetarian diet, though I included lots of whole grains, fresh veggies and fruits and some meatless meals. I also ate vegetarian myself for random periods throughout their childhood, so they were at least exposed to the concept.

Answer 8

Most vegetarians and vegans eat meat and other animal products until they make the decision for themselves not to.

Allow your children to do the same. They should still be healthy unless the main staples in their diets are processed meats, cheeses and fast foods.

My sister is a vegan and her husband and 2 sons all eat meat. Their diets are healthier than the normal omnivorous diet though just because of the veg influence.

Good luck

Answer 9

Being a vegetarian is a personal choise. Your children (in my opinion) should eat meat, and then make that choice later in life when they are ready for such a comitment. But I'm also the one who cooks at home-so guess how much meat we eat at home? =)

Answer 10

Um i went vegetarian and My Wife followed you know like a wife.. Subsequently My children also became vegetarian.. We decided together it was best for us and them.. Seriously grow a set and put your foot down you are the head of the household. Remember love is little more than 2 peoples frequencies in sync sounds like you 2 aren't in sync.