Why is this so difficult?-rant

[Guest guest]

I have been a vegetarian for about 20 years. Pretty much all of my adult life.

Now that I have kids (nearly 3 year old twins) my family is freaking out about

them being vegetarians. Not only that, they are making a big deal about feeding

me and them at family functions. First of all, I have never asked them to make

anything special. My kids barely eat when they are at my parents' house (too

excited) and I eat what I want to and am rarely hungry. My mom have had some

words about her being kicked out of the grandparent club because she can't cook

for her grandchildren and what will she do when they get older and they want to

try some meat balls and that it broke her heart when they asked for some soup

and she couldn't give it to them because it was chicken soup blah blah blah. I

just kind of roll my eyes. They are starting to parrot back that we don't eat

animals and I work hard at helping them associate the slab o'meat on the table

with the animal

sounds they know and the animals they have seen in real life and they may be

starting to actually get it. (we were at a brunch and there was a hunk of cow

being carved up and I told them how it was a cow and it said moo - this was when

they were younger - and they went up to the carver and pointed to it and started

mooing - I was so proud ).

 

So this Friday is my mother's birthday and we are ordering in from an Italian

restaurant for dinner and my dad calls me and says he doesn't know how to handle

the " vegetarian thing " . WHAT? After 20 years of practice? In a large urban

centre where vegetarians are abundant and all restaurants have a myriad of meat

free options (usually, now there is this charcuterie movement which is making

meat more prevalent, but I digress)? He doesn't know how to read a menu and

pick some things out that don't have meat?

 

Sure, I'll go through the menu and tell him what to order for my clan but,

seriously?!?! Why is this so freaking hard for them!

 

No response necessary. Just wanted to rant.

Thanks

Amelia