When do you teach kids about being vegetarian? (soy, food, corn)

[Liza54]

Our 2 children, now 2y and 9m, are being raised like their parents- no meat, chicken or seafood. I'd actually like to go vegan, but have not done so well yet w/ that. Anyway, needless to say I get tons of unwanted advice about my 'poor kids' not getting meat, and how awful school will be for them some day when all their friends eat meat, etc. Whatever. The question is how do I start to teach my kids that we don't eat animals and just let them live? That they suffer on farms and slaughterhouses, that they feel too. My daughter doesn't see, let alone understand, a plate of steak that used to be a cow. I don't want to horrify her either w/ images I saw as an adult of such farm raising cruelty. Any thoughts of how to teach such values??? ( I always thought living by example was best??) And by the way, we moved from veg- friendly so. california to NC where meat eating is the norm!

[ababa]

My daughter is only 2, so I am not to the point where she's asking a ton of questions. But I plan to teach her to love the animals. And for now, just keep her away from meat and dairy. Because she doesn't understand when I tell her she can't have food others are eating. And she loves to eat!!! It makes it hard to get her socialization, but we are trying to find other veggie families, or events that we can attend without food, or leave before the food is wheeled out. I'm sure once she is older, and I explain that we love the animals and choose not to eat them, she will be on board.

[crazyme4878]

My sons are 5 and 22 mo. I don't know how we ended up teaching the 5 y.o. about vegetarianism. It is just how we lived. He has asked why we don't. We tell him that we don't think it is healthy for us. We take this road instead of "animals are our friends" route because our entire family eats meat and we didn't want to color them badly in our son's eyes. We tell him that everyone makes choices, and this is our choice, what we think is the best choice for our family. He has gone on to to ask what certain meat is (hamburgers, bacon, etc.) and we tell him what animal it came from. In some ways, I think he has the soul of a hunter, but he is very compassionate toward animals and even gets upset when his friends want to kill an insect. If any of that makes sense to an outsider. Overall, I feel very good about his morals in this area. He doesn't judge others for eating meat, but at this point, I don't think he would even want to try it.

When he was younger, and now with our toddler, we just tell him meat is icky if he grabs for it or points to it. We don't do it loudly, its just as if he points to cleaner. It is a simple "No, icky, yucky, we don't eat that."

She will have lots of questions in time. I wouldn't worry about it until then--just answer her questions as they come.

I have always lived in areas that are high in meat-eaters, especially the last place we lived which was a very small, isolated town where something like vegetarianism was considered way out there. But we have been lucky and everyone has supported us and has been very protective of my son's dietary needs. He has had some classmates ask him about it, but he seems to be very confident about it. I forget what line he uses--maybe "I don't eat animals." Not sure. It wasn't any line that I "fed" him--he came up with his responses on his own. But I have felt like I had to compromise on sweets. I'm sure I didn't have to, but I didn't want to find out the threshold of tolerance! He gets enough sweets--but in the form of baked goods and sometimes ice cream. The things people feed their kids! Sugared cereal, "juices" which are only watered-down high fructrose corn syrup, candy, "fruit" snacks, etc. All of this stuff is filled with non-food items and stuff we never let our son have. But, I have also groomed my son on the different sugars and which ones are better and why. I also taught him the term "sugar water" for all those sodas and "juices." And I would keep reminding him not to eat much of it. It kind of worked.

There is also the feeling, now that he is in school, of how much of a "freak" do we want our son to be? I know that may sound horrible, but we say it in a half-mocking way. We realize that our choices make our son stand out in a way. So when he came home on the first or second day of school and said that everyone else gets dessert in their lunches, we followed suit. Of course, its dessert our way--homemade cookies or fruit or Bunny Grahams.

Maybe I should point out that we also don't have a TV, which most of his friends find wierd. So we make compromises where we can, so that he can feel like he is "just like the others" even though his lifestyle isn't.

[Liza54]

What a difference living "amongst our kind" makes. As I said, in San Diego we were surrounded by others who live this way. Soy milk drink boxes, organic, vegetarian cook outs, meeting at the farmer's market and enjoying a vege stir fry together. Now I am the constant conversation piece at lunch- blows my mind how what I eat is "weird" when ground up animal carcass is delicious. I believe we will move to a place that fits our lifestyle a bit better!

[headnsouth]

There is something different about each kid. Maybe his diet, or his religion (or lack thereof) or his academic abilities (or lack thereof) or his race or size or birthmark or deafness or interest in some sport/game or his allergies or his mother's alcoholism or his father's conspicuous absence or ... or ... or ...

Living by example is best. Your children will ask questions when they sense something different, and just like anything else, if you respond with age-appropriate answers that don't judge other people, then they'll accept it and move on to some other subject.

My kids came of age meditating and eating Tofurky for Thanksgiving in a very conservative rural village. The experience of being labeled "weird" and "different" by kids and adults there gave them a feeling of liberation --- since they were already labeled as not being part of the homogeneous group, they were free to pursue their own interests without following the crowd. It's been great for their developing sense of self and confidence.