letting vegetarian raised children experiment with meat (what about cheese?)

[Guest guest]

I have read through most of this thread (I might have missed

something), and have not seen much about kids' struggles with

veganism. My daughter is almost five years old, and while she is a

staunch vegetarian (screams out " EEEWWW GROSS--WE DON'T EAT THAT! " at

the top of her lungs at the sight of animal carcasses in the grocery

store with NO prompting from me), she is waffling on veganism. I am

vegan, and my husband is vegetarian, and so is most of my family and

all of his (they are east Indian). Everyone has been extremely willing

to accommodate this choice (that is always have options for us, don't

say negative things, etc), and my husband has been very on board with

raising her vegan.

 

The challenge these days is that she sees other children at her

preschool eating the goldfish, cheetos, etc.(she accidentally tried

cheetos once and informed me that when she grows up that is ALL she

will eat). Now she has tried cheese pizza. I don't know if she is too

young for me to give her that choice, or if it would be better to say

--no, we are vegan--and not give the choice. She actually still

chooses vegan pizza some of the time. I know that she understands

about meat; I think she partially understands about cheese and milk

( I have explained it many times and in many ways, with books, etc.),

but therein lies the dilemma. Since dairy products SEEM more removed

from the killing, I think it is harder for a child this age to

understand, and the cheese products are packaged in such a tempting

way (and cheese pizza smells good, I guess). Eating dairy products is

such an integral and conditioned part of our American culture, and I

want her to escape some of that conditioning without being a control

freak about her food choices.

 

My gut tells me to make her own choices on this, and to continue to

remind her why I make the choices I do. I would like to hear anyone

else's experience about this who cares to share.

 

Peace,

Melissa