I played softball growing up. Sometimes we’d have late evening games, and would have to get dinner on the way home. I remember sitting in Arby’s one night, after winning a game, and having a roast beef and cheddar sandwich. I was thirteen. I’d taken a bite and suddenly it dawned on me that I was eating an animal. It sounds embarrassing, but I really hadn’t put two and two together before this. I mean, it’s not like my mom made an announcement every evening before dinner. “Okay, guys! We’re having COW tonight!” It really never occurred to me where my dinner came from, and until that night, I’d happily chowed down on my steak and hamburger. I was too young to understand the politics of vegetarianism, but I stopped eating meat.
My family was really supportive of my decision to give up meat. No one ever tried to convince me otherwise, and I always had plenty of things to eat at every meal. Maybe it’s because we are Italian and grew up having enough food at the table for an army. No one ever went out of their way to make me a super special vegetarian dish; everyone’s side dishes would become my main course, and it’s still like that today. A typical dinner in my house would be chicken, noodles, salad, vegetables and bread. I was more than full with my pasta and salad, and I’ve always loved eating vegetables.
My uncle was a vegetarian for years, too. His oldest son was four when he realized that his papa didn’t have the same food on his plate as he did. He and his younger brother went on a meat-eating-strike until my uncle decided to start eating meat again. This has always been in the back of my mind, and I’ve wondered how other families balance being a vegetarian when their kids aren’t. Would my own children recognize differences on our plates, too?
Once Chloe was old enough to have solids, it didn’t really occur to us that she shouldn’t eat meat. We let her have things like chicken and beef, and more recently she’s been on a pork kick. She has yet to notice that the food on my plate isn’t the same as hers. A lot of people have asked us why we don’t raise her as a vegetarian, and the simple answer is that it’s a personal choice and I don’t feel comfortable making that decision for my child. My husband is a meat eater, and we’ve decided that Chloe can make her own decisions regarding vegetarianism when she’s old enough to understand what she’s doing. We haven’t determined an appropriate age, yet, but my parents were cool with it at 13, so I imagine we would be too.
Chloe’s first hamburger, May 2013
Meat is on our dinner menu a few times a week. Just like my family did growing up, we have an assortment of side dishes that double as my main course It’s been working for us for years, and I’m hoping to share some of our meal plans and recipes with you!
Are you a vegetarian? Does your husband and/or children eat meat? Why?
coconut / 8279 posts
We’re all vegetarians. If J wants to eat meat when he’s older, that’s his choice, just like becoming vegetarian was mine.
cantaloupe / 6171 posts
I’m a vegetarian– I stopped eating meat when I was 4 in a similar way as you! But lo will eat meat like my husband as long as she likes it. For me, it’s more of a texture thing than political choice (hard to be very political at she 4
) so I don’t feel too strongly about lo making the same choice. But we will have lots of vegetarian proteins for her– tofu, tempeh, beans, etc so she’ll try the whole gamut of options
blogger / pomegranate / 3491 posts
I went through a vegetarian phase in my teens but came back to meat half way through college. C is a happy meat lover but if he ever chose to go vegetarian, we would happily support his decision asking as he willingly ate other plant based protein sources.
pear / 1837 posts
I am the same as @rachiecakes: – we are all vegetarian and if LO wants to eat meat when she’s older, that will be her personal choice. I stopped eating meat when I was 12 and read an article about factory farming… it changed my life. DH decided to stop eating meat when I got pregnant as we wanted to raise DD vegetarian. I would have no issue if DH wanted to eat meat again, this is his personal choice. But I won’t feed DD meat in my house, I just don’t believe in it.
blogger / honeydew / 7081 posts
We joke that K is a baby vegetarian- she hates meat! But she loves tofu, crazily enough. We try to eat meat-free a few times a week, so I’m looking forward to some great recipes!
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
I think it’s great that you’re not “forcing” your own beliefs and choices on C!
blogger / pear / 1563 posts
Definitely no vegetarians in this house! Personally I think it’s so important for little ones to have good protein and since we get high quality meats, we feel very confident giving them to Little P. Plus, he LOVES meat!
blogger / coconut / 8306 posts
@Mrs. Pinata: true! My husband tries to buy all our meat from the local market, who gets it from a local farm. It’s actually down the road but they don’t sell to the public! He said he can taste a huge difference!
grapefruit / 4089 posts
Thanks for this! I am a vegetarian, but my SO is not, and the conversation about what our kids will eat has come up often. I think that we have decided to feed them a mix of both – sometimes vegetarian meals, sometimes high quality meat, and just see where it goes. You can definitely get enough protein without eating meat, so that’s a non-issue in my mind, but I figure we will expose our future kids to both sides of things and let them choose when they are old enough to understand.
pear / 1895 posts
We are sort-of vegetarians. We don’t cook meat at home, usually, but we will order it when we go out to eat, if it’s from a reputable place. Being in Asheville, a ton of restaurants source their meat locally, which is awesome.
With that said, I don’t have any issue with my LO eating good-quality meat. But he doesn’t like it, usually. It may be due to lack of exposure to it at home, I’m not sure.
If, when he’s older, he requests meat for meals, I suppose I will indulge him. But I hope he doesn’t because I am awful at cooking meat!
clementine / 927 posts
My husband is vegan but I’m vegetarian. We plan to raise the baby vegetarian because that’s all I know to cook!
honeydew / 7444 posts
I’m not a vegetarian, but i think it’s great that you’re going to give her the choice to make that decision herself when she’s older!
pomegranate / 3921 posts
My household growing up was like this! My mom is a vegetarian, but my dad is a meat-and-potatoes guy. So, we always had options! Normally I don’t eat a ton of meat, but I do eat a lot of fish. (Now that I’m pregnant, I’m not wanting fish and I’m wanting a lot of cheeseburgers….go figure.) Anyway, my brother went through a vegetarian stage, and I eat meat but can also totally live without it. And I love it that way!
Also, Chloe is so precious! Love the pic.
apricot / 317 posts
I was a vegetarian for a couple of years (my early 20s) when I discovered information about factory farming and about where some of the meat I was eating came from. Unfortunately, I was later diagnosed with gluten intolerance and a severe B12 deficiency. So….I am back to being an omnivore. My family’s beef and pork come from a local farm that raises their cows/pigs in pastures. We have had a lot of difficulty finding chickens that are humanely raised, though I do try to get organic when I can. My husband and son are also omnivores, btw.
blogger / nectarine / 2043 posts
My husband is a lifelong vegetarian (he’s Indian and vegetarianism is part of their culture), but I’m not. We’re sort of de-facto vegetarians at home because I’m usually just too lazy to cook meat just for myself, but I have meat when we go out, etc. Baby Carrot eats meat – I told my husband it was up to him whether he wanted to raise her a vegetarian and up to him to explain to her why mommy is eating meat and she isn’t, and he didn’t seem to care so while I don’t go out of my way to make meat for her, she has it at daycare and I give her meat if we go out to eat. I figure she can make her own decisions when she’s older.
blogger / nectarine / 2043 posts
@rachiecakes @lulabee – just keep in mind that some people (my husband being a good example) can end up not tolerating meat products as they get older if they have no exposure to them as kids. Not to discourage your choice at all, I fully believe in everyone deciding what’s best for their kids, but just to say out loud that my husband found that even if he wanted to start eating meat as an adult, it literally made him sick (same for his brother).
blogger / coconut / 8306 posts
@Mrs. Carrot: that’s another great point! I tried chicken and got so sick from it.
nectarine / 2600 posts
Interesting! I became a vegetarian when I was nine, and finally made the commitment to vegan this past fall. DH is also vegan, but he will eat fish from time to time.
I guess if/when we have LOs, they’ll pretty much just be vegan at home, and like, you, we’ll let them make the choice. I do want them to be informed though, and I hope they are good/adventurous eaters! I will definitely let them know where meat comes from. I won’t freak out (too much, lol) if for example they are staying at a friend’s house overnight, and they get served meat. And as they get older, I probably would not buy them something they asked for, such as a leather bag. (We’re talking teens here I guess.)
grapefruit / 4028 posts
@Mrs. Jump Rope: @Mrs. Carrot: I’ve been a vegetarian for about 15 years now, and was told by my doctor that if I ever wanted to start eating meat again, I’d have to start like an infant, literally eating baby food.
@Mrs. Jump Rope: I’m looking forward to your recipes!
DH is not a vegetarian, but will eat vegetarian food. We intend to raise future kids eating all types of food, so it’s great to see other families that do the same!
GOLD / apricot / 341 posts
My husband and children are vegetarian. My husband has been all his life (Indian husband – just like @Mrs. Carrot). We don’t have meat at home but I’ll have it when we eat out. Of course our children will be free to make their own decisions about this when they’re older. They get a hugely varied diet and I’m not at all worried about protein but I do keep a close check on iron and vitamin d. And personally I am at that point where I need to sort of figure out where I stand. I don’t eat meat in front of the children because I think it would be hugely confusing to them (our eldest is 3.5 and very aware of being a vegetarian and why and that not all families do it this way). So I feel like I need to decide if I am going to go all-veggie myself or when and how to discuss with the kids that I actually eat meat…
GOLD / grapefruit / 4555 posts
Awwwww C’s first hamburger!! Love
guest
Hello, I love that you wrote this. I was planning on writing a blog post about this same topic and went to see what else was out there about it and stumbled across yours
I’ve been a vegetarian for about 5 years, and once of the first things everyone asks me is if my almost 2 year old is also vegetarian, which she is not. I agree with you that it’s a personal choice and that our babes deserve to make the choice for themselves!