Our (nearly 3 years old) little boy has been vegetarian since birth. I'm a vegan and his daddy is a vegetarian so there's no need to cook different meals and we can mostly share our food; we're not extremists, we just eat our thing and other people eat theirs.
He never had any formula, has only ever been ill once in his life, is perfectly healthy, a tornado of energy and has always been ahead or right on time in reaching his developmental milestones; he seems a very bright child.
We as parents, after a lot of discussion, came to the agreement:
When he was old enough to understand what his choice to eat meat entailed and where it came from, he could choose for himself if he would like to eat meat.
So far, he's a compassionate little man who loves animals and babies. We don't eat much fake meat but he does love veggie dog 'sausages', as does our sneaky omnivore cat. We don't really have trouble getting him to eat his veggies and he doesn't have to eat anything he doesn't want to, but he DOES have to try it first.
I just thought I'd share our experiences so far about raising a compassionate and aware human being.
*Our cat ducks under the gate, into our backyard, carrying her hunt in her mouth. I spot it and tell mister two, "It looks like she's been hunting and has caught something, it might be a mouse.. it's too small for a mouse, what is that?", I wonder to myself. Mister pulls the orange butterfly confidently out of the cat's mouth and holds it up to me as it flaps around feebly, he turns to the cat, "No, you can eat CAT food!".
I try to tell him it might be too injured to go on, which he disagrees with and simply throws the butterfly in the air and off it flies.
I'm left in awe and so proud of the compassion and quixotic intent of my 'insect hero'.
For the rest of the day as we travel to the library and back, an orange butterfly seems to pop up every now and then.
Everyday magic is such a blessing.
*While trying to (again) explain most of the population (what is it, 97% percent?) eat meat, I pointed out that at dinner at a family member's house, they ate a chicken leg. "Me want a.. a veggie leg!", was the reply.
(He finds it very hard to accept that people and animals eat meat.).
*I was playing with his wooden toy snake and spotted a mouse toy. "Yum, nom nom nom.", went the snake. "NO!", came an angry and astounded cry. "But snakes eat mice sweetie and he's just hungry.". "No!", he said very matter-of-factly, "He can eat an apple.". Off to the fruit bowl he trotted and soon was sharing an apple with the snake.
*Tonight we were watching a documentary on birds. The vultures were picking at a dead animal (not very graphic in the show's visuals, more suggestive), mister two protested, "You can't eat thems!". . He asked me why they don't eat vegetables. "I don't know. I don't think they could dig them out or if they could eat (digest) them. I don't actually know sweetie.". The beautiful swallows eating bugs, the cat hunting a pigeon, and the cranes being robbed of their fish by the eagles and foxes were in turn explained as the show went on.
The cat got a dirty look and I was hit with question after question.
As we read our bedtime story, he asked about a picture, "Does the giraffe eat the caterpillar?", he asked (the giraffe chewed a branch with one upon the end). It was nice to say no, that they were vegetarian and wouldn't intentionally eat bugs. He seemed relieved that not all animals ate animals. Then he asked about the tiger's bone in the picture.. sigh.
Everyone parents and lives differently and we've chosen to parent as honestly (with care and support) and as close to our deepest beliefs as possible. We're proud of our amazing little man and are impressed with the compassion, interest and understanding he's shown.
We feel very lucky to have the freedom and support to raise a happy vegetarian child and so hope to teach the same respect and tolerance for freedom of choice to our next generation; as well as a realistic view on the world. We hope to instil the confidence in him to follow his own path, while letting others walk their own; leading by positive example if he desires, rather than imposition.
So far he wishes to be a vegetarian. We bet that won't last in the rebellious teen years but only time will tell.
You can grow happy, healthy and soulful vegetarians with a balanced and varied diet, here's more proof to the growing pool of evidence.
And no matter what we love him immensely.
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