I’ll admit that I sometimes feel uncomfortable about my decision to raise my boys vegan – not through any uncertainties about the lifestyle, but more because of the certainty that people will be judging me for it.
And I’m weak – I want to be liked, I want to be respected and above all I want people to think that I’m a good Mummy. I wish I was one of those people who genuinely don’t care what people think of them, but I’m not!
So I’ve been thinking a lot about what my defence is going to be if anyone questions me on my decision to give the boys what some people will see as ‘a restricted diet.’
I guess I could harp on about animal cruelty, the torture that goes on in factory farms, that eggs are really baby chickens, that fish feel pain. All true, all very valid. All likely to be met with the view that I shouldn’t impose my own ethics on my children.
I could try the health angle – that meat eating causes cancer and heart disease. Ditto cheese and eggs. I could point out that a plant based diet is the optimum diet for health, no matter what your age. All ture, all very valid.
However I’ve come to the conclusion that fighting my corner and coming up with a litany of reasons may make me seem like I’m trying to convince myself, that I’m maybe not 100% certain about my decision.
So when the inevitable question crops up, I’m going to keep it short and sweet.
‘I believe that eating meat and dairy is immoral. I will no more teach my children to participate in the torture of animals than I would teach them to lie, cheat or steal’
End of!
babystepsvegan 
I think its perfectly normal for a parent to raise a child using his/her own morals and ethics for diet, just as it is for any other issue. Provided that so long as when they’re old enough to understand that there are different moral or ethical views, that they be given the choice to decide for themselves.
Brilliant! I don’t have children but if I do they will be raised vegan and now I have a ready made reposte for the noseys who may question my parenting choices 🙂 Thanks!
excellent decision 🙂
Have just found your blog. I’m a vegan mummy too! I have two very gorgeous, vegan, intelligent, aware children.
Mine are 3 and 2 (a boy and a girl). My three year old is already very outspoken about where meat comes from and will often tell others what they are eating (slightly embarrassing at times but secretly I’m thrilled!).
I am vegan for a variety of reasons (health, animal rights, environment) and there was no way that I would bring my children up as anything but vegan. They are actually the healthiest children I know which is always comforting. Why would I put stuff in their little bodies that would clog up their systems? It was a very easy decision for me too.
Thanks for the replies. I actually didn’t set out to have the boys adopt a vegan diet – I once subscribed to the school of thought that it should be their decision to be made when they are old enough. But, every day I found out a little more about vegan nutrition, about the hidden nasties in meat and dairy and about the benefits of a vegan diet – in the end, even if you were to take the ethical side of things out of the equation, it seemed highly irresponsible to continue feeding my children this ‘food’, standard accepted diet or not!
My 3 year old is fab – he wanders round the supermarket picking things up and shouting ‘is this vegan?’. If I tell him something isn’t vegan, he happily puts it back with no fuss whatsoever. He seems to ‘get’ it! (Not to say that it won’t cause problems later when we hit the teenage rebellion years!)