Group: Vegetarian

Interesting question, I think.

I have 2 children myself, aged 3 and 4. I eat no meat, but I do eat fish (never said I was consequent. But I can do without meat, but not totally without fish). My wife is a 'normal' person, as she also eats meat (and likes it a lot). I don't have a problem with that as long as I do not have to cook it for her or eat it with her and she does not slaughter any animals at home when I am around ;-)

So ... what do we do with our kids? My wife definitely puts the children's well-being and health over considerations whether thou shalt or shalt not kill animals. And I agree with her, although I do not believe that you 'need' meat to lead a healthy lifestyle. But, I know that most children like to eat sausage ... I liked it myself until I made a conscious decision not to eat meat any more at about age 20-25.

So, my point on this is that I do not want to force my lifestyle on my kids as they are not yet able to make a decision whether they want to stop harming animals and sacrifice a little bit of pleasure for that. When they are older, they will understand that I do not eat meat and why I do not do it. Then they can decide themselves.

On a lighter note, I have a colleague and friend at work who is of Indian origin, his wife as well. They both are convinced vegetarians for reasons of personal conviction, and do not eat fish either. I think he eats eggs and cheese, but nothing that has to be killed. Still, he has a 3 year old daughter who likes to eat sausage ... and he and his wife support her in this (most likely in order not to make her an outcast in Kindergarten). Now how funny is that...

Another example to the opposite is my neighbour ... who is a devout muslim. His smallest son (5 years old) knows exactly what he is and is not allowed to eat. He eats fruit, pastries and similar when invited at our place , but politely refuses candies (that can contain pig gelatine or similar). He does not do this grudgingly (at least not outward ;-), but he knows it is important for him for religious reasons and accepts this s his way of life. He does eat sausage and likes it, but he knows that there is sausage he can eat (the 'halal' version his parents buy at a Turkish shop) I have to say I am impressed with that.

What do you think?

Best regards,
Andreas
This article was modified on 17 Jul 2007 at 10:23 pm.

OK, Sabrina gave me a great suggestion in another thread - soy minced meat.

My kids really liked my spaghetti sauce that I prepared with it (to be honest, I also put a spoonful of sugar inside, which always helps to make spaghetti sauce more attractive to kids), and today we made mini-hamburgers together.

After explaining to them, of course, that this is dried hamburger meat (as opposed to fresh one).
Actually, it is also much more practical than fresh minced meat, as you do not have to refrigerate it - just keep it in your cupboard and prepare it with warm water 10 minutes prior to cooking.

And (as far as I can recall :-) it tastes like real minced meat - which is, of course, not like very much.

Best regards,
Andreas

Andreas,

do you think that if you explained to your children what this meat on their plate is - i.e. a beautiful and kind animal killed by humans just to give people the "pleasure" of eating it without any necessity - do you really think your children would want to eat it?

I think that most children show the true nature of man - they are kind and generous. If you told them the truth, they would not want to eat any killed animal ever again. This is the greatest betrayal in my eyes, that we don't tell our children the truth.

And why not raise them as vegetarians and let them decide later on if they want to eat meat?

have a nice sunday

Frauke

Hallo Andreas,

i also come from india and very very strict vegetarian family(not vegan). My religious background does not allow me to eat animals ,eggs and fish. In short, i am not supposed(darf) to eat anything which has life. Even when i was a kid i had tasted eggs ,which was a sin. But i used milk products in past as there was no restriction on them as they do not cater to anyone's life. Here in germany ,i am trying to become vegan.I know lot of my friends ,relatives ,forefather etc .. who have never ever tasted animals ,eggs and fish. As Far as my personal experience is cocerned, one does not need eggs,meat or fish for healthy living. See elephant girrafe etc.. all are vegetarians.

How you raise your children is your choice,i don't want much to comment on that issue.
I had put forward my perspective about vegetarian life.

The funniest thing here is that eggs and fish are vegetarian, but how????.This is bit funny.

Greetings

Vishal

Hello Andreas

At first, I agree with Frauke and excuse my broken English. ;-(

In my opinion it is the most important to be genuine. If my conscience does not allow killing animals for food or another thing – how could I show this to my children? That’s dishonest.

I have got no children yet. But my friend (omnivore) and I (vegan) agree about to raise them as vegetarians.

As far as I can remember, in my younger days, I felt sad about the violence against animals. There were my friends, I felt for them. I never accepted this fact although I had to eat meat.

Greetings
Vanessa

Hello everybody,

we are vegetarians - but our children always had the freedom to eat what they like (a long as we're not talking about candy and crackers only).

From time to time they tried salami or ham when they were with friends - but never really liked it. That way we know that they choose the vegetarian life style - and weren't just raised to it.

If they would like meat - I would buy it for them, maybe not cook it. Then they had to learn how to prepare it.

DS