RE: Spouses who eat meat: letting vegetarian raised children experiment with meat

[Guest guest]

We do not have meat in the house for the most part. Occasionally (once every

couple of months) a frozen chicken pot pie from the farmers market or canned

chili with beef or sandwich meat but nothing which needs to be 'prepared' as the

smell of cooking meat makes me sick Or, at least, I find it really gross. My son

(7 now) has never asked to try some though he has asked lots of questions about

meat-what part of the animal is it? is that the blood? what does it taste like?

etc... In fact, he knows which people to distrust and he will be sure to

question them when they offer him something to eat.

 

It has often been a source of contention between my husband and myself so I

finally agreed that my husband could offer him egg. But, by this time my son was

5 and, though I could see his fascination with it, he finally asked to have it

removed from his plate so he could eat his meal. He never touched a bite. The

same cannot be said for times when my husband has baked brownies with eggs.

Those he ate although with some sense of guilt. Even when he was 2 and we lived

with my meat eating parents it was the same. Fascination but no desire to be

part of it. We still spend summers with my meat eating parents and my son has

never asked to try anything though he does like to peel their eggs. He has asked

about when he is older and lives in his own house if I would be disappointed if

he ate meat. I said 'yes, and I'm sure the animals would be too but it will be

your choice.' I think this is more him testing me rather than an actual interest

in eating meat.

 

On a related note, we have certainly had some struggles as a veg/non-veg couple.

A few things that have helped have been agreeing in advance to the weekly meals.

My husband loves soups (veg or not), chick pea curry, baked tofu & baked potatoes,

etc. If we have these things ready to go he seems not to even notice there is no

meat. Also, I do not care what he eats at work, when we visit family, or when we

eat out. This means at least once a week he can have a meat fix. These

compromises have really helped our family. Also, agreeing that he could offer

eggs (and even fish) was a good move. It made him feel more a part of the

decision making process (but I held out long enough that I knew my son probably

would not be interested). Also, my son has always turned to me to see how I

react to food decisions. Perhaps because I am and always have been the main

supplier of food and also probably because we are the only 2 veg among our

friends and family so I think there is a sense of following my lead. This means

that for food decisions he looks to my example.

 

Madeline

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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