Hey! So, a little background: my partner has been omni all of his life, while I have always been vegetarian and made the switch to vegan when I was 14, 9 years ago. My partner eats (mostly) vegan at home with me, and only has the very occasional bit of milk, usually because he hasn't bothered to read the ingredients on something that has it hidden in there. He has no qualms about eating meat and cheese when we're eating out or at his parents’ house, though, which totally disgusts me (1/5)
... because I know he understands why I’m vegan and sort of believes in it too – he said the other day that even if we broke up he thinks he would stay kind of vegetarian. Anyway, even though I sometimes get upset about his eating habits, it’s never really been a big issue for us. As far as I’m concerned a small change is better than no change. On to the problem: we are getting married this summer and naturally our thoughts have turned to the more long-term future. (2/5)...I’ve just never considered that I might not have the full backing of my partner in this. Is raising children vegan “forcing” them into a lifestyle they wouldn’t otherwise choose? If not, how do I convince my partner? Can you recommend any videos/literature that might help him to understand why I choose this lifestyle? Sorry for the super long Ask! (5/5)
Hey. I didn’t get parts 3 and 4!
Raising your children vegan is not forcing your beliefs on them anymore than passing on any other of your ethical beliefs to them is. You will teach them not to hit their classmates, to say please and thank you, not to tease and be mean and try to hurt others on purpose - your goal is to raise them to be good people who know right from wrong, but children are very selfish in the early stages. They don’t understand abstract concepts. They’re not good at putting themselves in someone else’s shoes. You will always explain why they are allowed or not allowed to do something, and they might or might not understand your reasoning, but you will have to order them to do many things. It’s funny how everyone’s always so loud about not forcing veganism on children, about letting them decide, completely ignoring the fact that they’re controlling every other aspect of their children’s lives. But when it comes to slaughtering and eating animals, let’s leave that up to a 5 year old kid, right?
Anyway, you should go ask veganwithcarnist for advice on how to deal with your future husband, I’m not sure if I can help with that.