Kids Eating Meat or Being Vegetarian

[Margarita888]

Originally Posted by russianrocket

If that convinced you that children are naturally vegetarian, then what will me not eating veggies since I was a toddler convince you of?

That your parents/caregivers didn't give you any??

Given a choice between an apple or a banana and a chicken, a toddler isn't going to instinctively go kill the chicken unless he/she was intentionally taught to do that.

If your parents didn't eat meat and you weren't exposed to it, you wouldn't learn to like it or eat it. You're going to eat what's available and not starve yourself and hold out until they give you some bloody meat. Certainly not at 2 or 3 yrs of age.

[firenexx]

It's too bad that we're all using purely anecdotal evidence to support our points. Look, I can do it to. Here's my post:

When I was a young kid, I didn't like most forms of meat. Steak, pork chops, fish, etc. The funny thing is, the only time I would eat it was when it was ground, processed, mashed, etc. For instance, meat loaf made with tons of seasonings and oats/breadcrumbs. Chicken nuggets, i.e. ground, processed, mixed with corn and soy derivatives, breaded, and fried. Based on my anecdotal evidence, kids aren't meant to eat meat.

To be fair, children certainly can eat meat; I ate it for 20 years and didn't die. To discuss whether or not it's best for them to eat meat goes into very complex anthropological, genetic, and historical issues, which cannot really be touched upon using anecdotal evidence, such as one person saying "I knew this kid that ate lotsa meat but hated his veggies," and one person saying "Yeah, well I know this kid that ate lotsa veggies but hated meat."

Personally, I would not feed children meat. This is based on me reading a wikipedia article about vegetarianism. Just kidding, this is based on various peer-reviewed scientific studies and other research that I have analyzed, such as The China Study by T. Colin Campbell. Just kidding. But I can imagine that it would be hard with a spouse who eats it. That could cause all sorts of problems! Whose principles win? I know a "mixed" couple and the vegetarian woman has decided to allow her children to eat meat until they "get old enough to decide." But what if they get old enough to decide and are horrified by the fact that they have been fed meat all their life? By waiting for them to decide, you have already decided for them. But by not feeding them meat, meat eaters would argue that you are predisposing them by force towards a plant-based diet, and the chance that they would decide to eat meat would be slim as you have already "brainwashed" them. It's a no-win situation! I would rather have my children abide by my principles until they get old enough to make their own, rather than raising them based on someone else's principles, "just to be safe," or to appease a spouse.

[russianrocket]

Originally Posted by Margarita888

That your parents/caregivers didn't give you any??

Given a choice between an apple or a banana and a chicken, a toddler isn't going to instinctively go kill the chicken unless he/she was intentionally taught to do that.

If your parents didn't eat meat and you weren't exposed to it, you wouldn't learn to like it or eat it. You're going to eat what's available and not starve yourself and hold out until they give you some bloody meat. Certainly not at 2 or 3 yrs of age.

Well, if that is what it convinced you of, then it just means you are prone to come to conclusions based on assumptions.

I'm from Russia. We didn't exactly have stores full of meat for the general populous. Veggies were a big staple of everyone's diet. And my parents and caregivers tried giving me veggies all the time. Schools also didn't have junk food, and when I was younger, they had to call my dad to come pick me up because I wouldn't eat lunch, which comprised mainly of salad.

If your parents never gave you meat, and you weren't exposed to it ever, then obviously you wouldn't learn to like it. Why even mention that? The point is, that when kids are exposed to it, they rarely have issues with eating it.

A toddler can't kill a chicken, so yet again, why mention it? Compare apples to apples. Given the choice between an apple, or a COOKED meat, there is no reason most children wouldn't instinctively choose meat. But, if you wanna go there, then when I was 3 years old, I was always there when my dad would bring home the LIVE chicken, and helped him cut the head off the chicken.

Also, kids plenty of times will go to their room hungry, because they won't eat their broccoli, and their parents tell them no dinner unless you eat your veggies. I've seen that in many families.

What that should tell you, is that everyone is different and there is no reason for you to make conclusions for everyone, based on your assumptions.

[russianrocket]

Originally Posted by firenexx

I would rather have my children abide by my principles until they get old enough to make their own, rather than raising them based on someone else's principles, "just to be safe," or to appease a spouse.

Rather have your children abide by your principles, but your spouses principles are what, baseless? Your spouse might feel the same way about his principles, and not wanna appease you. Then what?

[firenexx]

Rather have your children abide by your principles, but your spouses principles are what, baseless? Your spouse might feel the same way about his principles, and not wanna appease you. Then what?

Then I'm screwed, and apparently living in a state where homosexual marriages are legal.
If a married couple disagree on something, they either have to compromise or pick one or the other. If I were in a marriage where such an issue arose, there would be problems. The spouse might divorce me, and the courts would probably give them the children on the basis of me being a crazy hippie, trying to malnourish my kids by giving them a magic-invisible-yet-to-be-discovered-vitamin deficiency. Well if I were lucky I would get a progressive judge.

Of course, someone has to lose. SO if a meat-eating person marries a non-meat-eating person, the issue of what the kids eat is going to come up. All I'm saying, is that I would not raise young kids eating meat. If my spouse felt the opposite way, I guess I'd have marital problems. The same with many other marital issues. What if the spouse wanted to have kids and I didn't? Or what if the spouse wanted to become a subsistence farmer in Australia and I didn't? I see this as any other potential marital disagreement.

I know some families where one parent is trying their darndest to be in good health, eating good food, exercising, etc. The other parent is the "dominant" spouse (as sometimes happens) and brings the kids McDonalds and TV dinners regularly, lets the kids sit around playing video games all day, etc.
Now, I certainly am not comparing eating meat to these horrifically unhealthy activities; I am not quite that narrow-minded. But it is a good example of important lifestyle issues which might cause tension in a marriage, much like the vegetarian issue could.

That being said, there are plenty of marriages that work out fine where one parent eats meat and the other does not, and the kids are somewhere in between. They've been able to compromise. I guess I'm just not as flexible.

[Benton]

Originally Posted by kevinpd

Yes I know so!
They will have freedom to choose and they wont be looked down on at all.
Yes, there is more to meat than a product on a supermarket shelf, hence my original comment and as part of there learning about life they will be going to a local farm. Unlike most children who think a burger is made in a factory then find out what it really is!

So you're saying that if your kid came home and said "Dad, I want a hamburger for dinner" you would cook one for him?

Originally Posted by kevinpd

Veggie,s have a right to make a choice, we are not abnormal in not eating meat but that is the way society tries to make people think!

Actually, not eating meat is abnormal for the human species. In the overall history of the human animal, the only time there was no meat in the diet is when there was none available.

Originally Posted by Margarita888

Given a choice between an apple or a banana and a chicken, a toddler isn't going to instinctively go kill the chicken unless he/she was intentionally taught to do that.

Really? You're going to go there? How about this: offer the kid an apple tree or a live chicken, is he going to eat or starve? I vote for starve. No child prepares his own food, and that goes for pretty much the entire mammal community.

[Margarita888]

Jeez louise!!! Why are the meat eaters here so agitated??

I'm not saying raising all kids to be veggies is the one and only way to raise them. I do agree that everybody's different, and some people may thrive better on a diet with meat than eating rabbit food. Your choice to eat meat is your own just as my choice to not eat them is mine. If you think kids should eat meat, that's fine. If your own kids prefer to eat steak over blueberries, that's fine. I personally choose not to feed my kids meat, regardless of what anybody thinks they should eat for a lot of other reasons. If they decide later in life that they want to eat meat, then I hope they do it consciously, for the right reasons, and not because all their friends are eating it and they just want to fit in. But as long as I'm in charge of preparing their meals, I'm not going to be buying meat and cooking it for them unless there is a medical necessity to do so. Like somebody else posted here, I don't want them growing up thinking meat just comes from a factory and is something you buy at the store or eat at a restaurant.

Anyway, back to the original post, if there was a school trip to visit a farm or a slaughterhouse, I would definitely let my kids go to both.

[cheesedip1]

Hmm... I think if you raised your kids without meat, it wouldnt matter so much as long as they weren't undernourished and got plenty of minerals and nutrients.

I was never raised on soda or dairy and I didnt seem to miss those things.

Many parents don't include much fruit in their kids' diets. Do you think kids are gonna care? I don't see how meat is any different. Likewise, how some include much junk food and yet others don't.

As long as you're not undernourished, whatever you are fed on, will feel normal to you.

Meh, I think I just used circular thinking.

[russianrocket]

Originally Posted by cheesedip1

Hmm... I think if you raised your kids without meat, it wouldnt matter so much as long as they weren't undernourished and got plenty of minerals and nutrients.

I was never raised on soda or dairy and I didnt seem to miss those things.

Many parents don't include much fruit in their kids' diets. Do you think kids are gonna care? I don't see how meat is any different. Likewise, how some include much junk food and yet others don't.

As long as you're not undernourished, whatever you are fed on, will feel normal to you.

Meh, I think I just used circular thinking.

I think you missed the point of this thread. To many of us, feeding kids mostly junk food is seen as bad as not allowing them to eat animal products. Its not about. Soda and dairy, is a far cry from excluding all animal products. This isn't about what kids care and don't care about.

[IvyW]

wow.. after reading this forum i now crave steak...yumm

[Razia]

When i was kid my parents tell i was having meat but once i saw the process of slauting animals and then after i leave it forever..