WEBVTT 00:00:00.359 --> 00:00:05.619 Parents who raise their children vegan are often criticized for “forcing their beliefs” onto their kids. 00:00:05.620 --> 00:00:10.800 Or worse, accused of brainwashing their children and robbing them of their freedom to choose. 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:13.920 Well today, the brainwashers answer back. 00:00:18.360 --> 00:00:23.300 Hi it's Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. Raising children 00:00:23.310 --> 00:00:28.870 vegan is a surprisingly controversial practice. From concerns about malnutrition to projections 00:00:28.870 --> 00:00:34.250 of social isolation, sometimes the hardest part of being a vegan parent is fielding questions 00:00:34.250 --> 00:00:39.730 and criticisms from family, friends, doctors, and total strangers. 00:00:39.730 --> 00:00:44.480 If you’re familiar with my channel, you’ll know that I have a video series just for kids, 00:00:44.489 --> 00:00:49.440 including several interviews with real vegan kids. Well today I’m excited to launch my 00:00:49.440 --> 00:00:53.870 vegan parents series featuring some fantastic vegan families. 00:00:53.870 --> 00:00:56.440 So let’s meet the parents, shall we? 00:00:56.440 --> 00:01:01.790 There’s Jesse from the Bronx in New York City, NY, father of Zachary, who’s 2 and 00:01:01.790 --> 00:01:05.500 4-year-old Jesse Jace, whom you can meet in my vegan KIDS interview series. 00:01:05.500 --> 00:01:10.580 Martin and Katie from London, England, parents of Sam, who’s 17, Jamie who’s 15, and 00:01:10.580 --> 00:01:13.890 4-year-old JoJo, another KIDS interview series star. 00:01:13.890 --> 00:01:19.280 Shantelle from Cambridge, MA, mother of 8-year-old Izzy, who lays down some serious wisdom in 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:20.810 my KIDS interview series. 00:01:20.810 --> 00:01:26.840 Raffaela, from Lisbon, Portugal, mother of 5-year-old Vasco. Since my pronunciation leaves 00:01:26.840 --> 00:01:30.650 much to be desired, desculpa, let’s let him show you how it’s done: 00:01:30.650 --> 00:01:32.869 Vasco: Hello, I am Vasco 00:01:32.869 --> 00:01:34.170 Much better 00:01:34.170 --> 00:01:40.330 Melissa from Ann Arbor, MI, mother of two young adults ages 21 & 18 and 4-year-old Reuben. 00:01:40.330 --> 00:01:45.310 Ellen from Maui, Hawaii, mother of 1-year-old Sandy and 4-year-old Elvis, another show-stopper 00:01:45.310 --> 00:01:47.270 in my KIDS interview series. 00:01:47.270 --> 00:01:51.400 Crystal and Eric from Virginia, parents of 14-year-old Jordan, 8-year-old Alejandro, 00:01:51.400 --> 00:01:55.460 both of whom feature in the KIDS interview series, as well as two young adults who are 00:01:55.460 --> 00:01:56.780 19 & 21. 00:01:56.790 --> 00:02:01.150 And finally Theresa, mother of 10-year-old Amina and Kara, mother of 11-year-old Jude 00:02:01.150 --> 00:02:05.979 and 9-year-old Gala, with the whole lot them hailing from Brisbane Australia and appearing 00:02:05.979 --> 00:02:07.640 in my kid’s interview series. 00:02:07.640 --> 00:02:12.970 In addition one of Kara’s three grown children, India, chimed in as a vegan-parent-to-be 00:02:12.970 --> 00:02:16.920 Since some of the Skype connections were a little rough you can always turn on the captions 00:02:16.920 --> 00:02:17.739 and read along. 00:02:17.739 --> 00:02:22.400 In this interview series, these parents will be answering a number of questions and responding 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:27.700 to common concerns about raising vegan kids. And I thought what better place to start than 00:02:27.700 --> 00:02:32.780 asking for their responses to the accusation of making kids vegan by force. 00:02:33.380 --> 00:02:37.840 Jesse: Well, I feel that it’s quite the contrary. When you raise your child eating 00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:41.660 meat, you’re forcing your beliefs on them because you’re not telling them what they’re 00:02:41.670 --> 00:02:46.959 eating. You’re giving them food-like items, like hamburgers and hot dogs, and chicken-shaped 00:02:46.959 --> 00:02:52.849 fingers in the shapes of hearts and stars. You know, we have animals around him and he 00:02:52.849 --> 00:02:57.700 has no desire to eat the cat, no desire to eat the dog. In its purest form, he wants 00:02:57.700 --> 00:03:03.530 to eat fruits and vegetables. So, at an older age, if he really decides of his own free 00:03:03.530 --> 00:03:08.370 will that he wants to eat animals, he’s more than welcome. But, you know, right now 00:03:08.370 --> 00:03:12.440 we’re just allowing, we’re giving him choices and he’s more than happy to stick 00:03:12.440 --> 00:03:19.819 with the vegan options. I feel it’s not forcing him at all. I’ve taken him to social 00:03:19.819 --> 00:03:26.629 events, and he never, ever once thinks about eating meat or eating animals. If anything, 00:03:26.629 --> 00:03:33.330 he asks me, “Wow, those people are eating meat,” and he thinks it’s insane. So, 00:03:33.330 --> 00:03:38.379 I think it’s quite the contrary. When we’re out and about, he never says, “Daddy, mommy 00:03:38.379 --> 00:03:43.019 please I want to eat chicken,” like that doesn’t happen. He’s happy, he’s healthy, 00:03:43.019 --> 00:03:46.480 so I don’t see it as you’re forcing your child in any way. 00:03:46.480 --> 00:03:51.099 Martin: I think people have to remember that you’re not forcing anything, what you’re 00:03:51.099 --> 00:03:55.730 doing is actually closer to their nature. You’d have to be disturbing their nature 00:03:55.730 --> 00:04:01.209 more to redirect them towards meat, dairy, and eggs. I think people get confused that 00:04:01.209 --> 00:04:06.940 just because it’s the majority it doesn’t make it normal. What we’re doing is allowing 00:04:06.940 --> 00:04:10.379 them to be in-touch with their nature and keeping them there. We don’t have to lie. 00:04:10.379 --> 00:04:15.700 Now we make sure we are absolutely truthful about everything. And they’ve made their 00:04:15.700 --> 00:04:20.079 own informed decision, we haven’t forced anything upon them. We told them, this food 00:04:20.079 --> 00:04:25.259 comes from these animals or we educated them and they all responded with wanting to go 00:04:25.259 --> 00:04:32.729 vegan. And that was contradicting, especially for my teens. Thirteen, fifteen years of information 00:04:32.729 --> 00:04:37.020 telling them otherwise. So, I think people have to realize they’re forcing more negative 00:04:37.020 --> 00:04:41.759 stuff on their children by saying eat this stuff which causes this harm to your body 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:43.809 and causes harm to animals and the planet. 00:04:43.809 --> 00:04:49.199 Shantelle: I think the same could be said about a traditional American diet. I think 00:04:49.199 --> 00:04:53.789 that if you are giving your child hot dogs and hamburgers and chicken, isn’t that forcing 00:04:53.789 --> 00:05:01.039 your beliefs onto your child, as well? So, you know, I always tell Izzy, if you decide 00:05:01.039 --> 00:05:05.499 when you get older you want to eat meat – which, he’s always like, no way – never! That’s 00:05:05.499 --> 00:05:14.309 your choice, but I want you to have the information. I want you to know how this impacts your body, 00:05:14.309 --> 00:05:19.389 this impacts the world, this impacts the lives of the animals that we share this world with. 00:05:19.389 --> 00:05:24.770 Because the world is not ours. The world belongs to all of us. So, you have to respect everything 00:05:24.770 --> 00:05:30.110 that is on earth with you. So, if you can decide that you want to eat meat down the 00:05:30.110 --> 00:05:35.499 line, and you feel comfortable with that, you know, I’ve done all that I can do. But, 00:05:35.499 --> 00:05:42.369 you know, my goal is to give you the information and lead you down the path that I think is 00:05:42.369 --> 00:05:48.869 best for you, as your parent. So much of it is about just educating your children and, 00:05:48.869 --> 00:05:53.719 I feel like with veganism, the only thing we’re trying to do is make the world a better 00:05:53.719 --> 00:05:58.529 place. Anybody that tries to fault you for that, I feel like they may need to take a 00:05:58.529 --> 00:06:04.479 look at themselves a little bit and try to ask themselves why they feel like it’s so 00:06:04.479 --> 00:06:10.069 offensive to try to live cruelty-free and be healthy. So, I think that’s a bigger 00:06:10.069 --> 00:06:12.919 discussion than anything else. 00:06:12.919 --> 00:06:21.439 Raffaela: Accusing parents of forcing their beliefs upon children doesn’t make much sense 00:06:21.439 --> 00:06:29.719 to me, because all parents – vegan or not – will use their beliefs as guidance to 00:06:29.719 --> 00:06:40.779 raise their children. That is kind of a normal process. But, in case of veganism, we are 00:06:40.779 --> 00:06:51.639 not using our beliefs. We’re using our knowledge. These are two very different things and this 00:06:51.639 --> 00:07:00.889 knowledge is so valuable for them, that it would be very stupid for us not to use it. 00:07:00.889 --> 00:07:05.550 Melissa: Raising their child with meat is forcing your beliefs upon someone else. 00:07:05.550 --> 00:07:09.979 I was forced to eat meat as a child. That was a belief that was put on me, so. 00:07:09.979 --> 00:07:12.939 Ellen: To me, it just doesn’t make sense that you would think that it would be brainwashing. 00:07:12.940 --> 00:07:19.300 Because all that we’re really doing is informing them of the truth. There’s nothing brainwashing 00:07:19.300 --> 00:07:24.219 about it. The opposite is more brainwashing than the other. You know, to lie to them and 00:07:24.219 --> 00:07:29.889 to tell them that something is pork, not pig, You know, to say that it’s beef, not a cow. 00:07:29.889 --> 00:07:36.409 That’s more diluting the truth than just simply saying, this is a cow. And we never 00:07:36.409 --> 00:07:41.629 try to talk to Elvis like, you need to feel this way, you need to think this way, this 00:07:41.629 --> 00:07:46.449 is how we think. I always respond to his questions with like, well, this is how I think. 00:07:46.449 --> 00:07:51.139 You can decide for yourself. If you’re raising your children in something they naturally 00:07:51.139 --> 00:07:56.199 think on their own, be kind to animals. Something that they naturally don’t want to hurt animals, 00:07:56.199 --> 00:08:00.860 they don’t want to see animals suffer. And also to respond to their questions, and to 00:08:00.860 --> 00:08:05.199 just speak about the topic, in a way of like, “this is how I think, you can do your own 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:09.299 research, you tell me how you want to do the research, what do you want to learn about.” 00:08:09.300 --> 00:08:15.860 In no way is that brainwashing by any means. We don't make Elvis eat in a certain way 00:08:15.860 --> 00:08:20.180 When he asks, people say, “oh do you want to try this?” 00:08:20.180 --> 00:08:25.120 Like his friend was eating keifur the other day – do you want some? And he said, is it vegan? And she 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:28.860 said no, there’s milk in it, and he was like oh, no thanks. He didn’t say like, 00:08:28.860 --> 00:08:33.760 oh, well I’m not allowed, or my mom doesn’t let me. He was like, no I don’t want to eat that. 00:08:33.760 --> 00:08:42.440 As parents, it’s our duty to raise our children on the foods that bring the most health. 00:08:42.440 --> 00:08:46.960 We’re doing our children a disservice if we’re getting them addicted to junk food, 00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:52.620 and food that is not healthy for their bodies. I think it’s important to raise our children 00:08:52.629 --> 00:08:56.349 to not feel like they have to be like everybody else. This is what everybody’s doing, so 00:08:56.349 --> 00:09:00.620 you should be doing it even if it’s unhealthy for our bodies, even if it is harming animals 00:09:00.620 --> 00:09:06.100 that don’t want to die. We should be encouraging our children to be who they are, as individuals. 00:09:06.460 --> 00:09:13.800 Eric: I thought that’s what parents, I mean I’m not supposed to force something… you know, 00:09:13.810 --> 00:09:19.500 We raise them to what we think is what’s best. And people won’t understand it unless 00:09:19.500 --> 00:09:25.580 you’re a parent, then you know that, everything I do is what I think is best for them. 00:09:25.680 --> 00:09:32.100 Our beliefs of treating others how we want to be treated. I don’t see how there’s anything 00:09:32.100 --> 00:09:39.399 bad as far as raising them to not have the mentality of hurting animals and eating them. 00:09:39.399 --> 00:09:44.079 Crystal: Other parents think that, if you eat meat – there’s a disconnect – you’re 00:09:44.079 --> 00:09:46.319 not hurting animals. They’re food, so… 00:09:46.319 --> 00:09:48.899 Eric: We’re extreme because we’re vegan. 00:09:48.899 --> 00:09:53.759 Crystal: Yeah, we’re different, we’re hippies, and what else? We’re aliens. 00:09:53.759 --> 00:09:56.290 My mother-in-law says we’re not ordinary people. 00:09:56.290 --> 00:10:02.449 Theresa: Yes, I had one friend tell me that I’m forcing veganism on Amina , and she’s 00:10:02.449 --> 00:10:06.939 only doing it because she’s scared of me and doesn’t want to lose my love, and approval, 00:10:06.939 --> 00:10:10.899 or whatever. And then I said, you know, I never got an option when I was a child. 00:10:10.899 --> 00:10:16.699 I never got an option to go vegetarian or vegan, meat was forced on me, dairy was forced on me. 00:10:16.700 --> 00:10:21.220 Are you giving your children a choice? That’s what I asked her. And then later 00:10:21.230 --> 00:10:25.079 on, I told Amina that she said that and Amina laughed pretty hard because there’s no way 00:10:25.079 --> 00:10:29.279 I can force anything on her, she has a very strong mind, she’s very strong-willed. 00:10:29.279 --> 00:10:34.990 India: Someone has said to me before, you’re just going to raise it vegan, it doesn’t 00:10:34.990 --> 00:10:39.250 get a choice. I just said to them, if you raise your children eating meat, then did 00:10:39.250 --> 00:10:43.689 you ask them if they wanted to eat meat? Did you ask them if they wanted to be a Christian, 00:10:43.689 --> 00:10:49.500 or did you ask them if they wanted to wear clothes? Parents just bring their children up... 00:10:49.500 --> 00:10:52.600 Kara: …by your own standards. You bring your children up by your own standards 00:10:52.600 --> 00:10:54.640 India: By whatever you think is right, that’s what you should do. 00:10:54.640 --> 00:10:58.740 Kara: And, you know, what I like to say is when I’m against cruelty, I’m not going 00:10:58.750 --> 00:11:05.220 to allow my children to be cruel to animals. No way! I want them to be better people than that. 00:11:05.220 --> 00:11:10.740 I bring them up vegan so that they’re helping the animals, and the planet, it’s 00:11:10.740 --> 00:11:14.020 for their health. Why wouldn’t I teach my children that? 00:11:14.029 --> 00:11:20.700 Theresa: You teach your children tolerance, to accept all ethnicities, and all cultures, 00:11:20.700 --> 00:11:28.260 and to accept all lifestyle choices, and be kind to everyone. But as soon as you suggest 00:11:28.269 --> 00:11:32.969 being kind to animals, everyone loses their s---, you know. It’s really crazy. 00:11:32.969 --> 00:11:37.459 If you educate your children, and are honest about where your food comes from, I doubt that any 00:11:37.459 --> 00:11:42.610 child will willfully choose to continue eating animals. 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:47.320 I hope you enjoyed hearing from all of the vegan parents! Be sure to check out the video description 00:11:47.320 --> 00:11:52.899 below for links to their social media accounts so you can follow each family’s journey. 00:11:52.899 --> 00:11:57.290 I'd love to hear your thoughts on raising kids vegan in the comments below! And stay tuned 00:11:57.290 --> 00:12:00.189 for more to come in the vegan parents series. 00:12:00.189 --> 00:12:04.149 If you liked this bit of a brainwash, do give the video a thumbs up and share it around 00:12:04.149 --> 00:12:08.360 to help other families. If you’re new here, I’d love to have you as a subscriber. 00:12:08.360 --> 00:12:13.100 I put out fresh content covering all aspects of veganism every Monday, Wednesday and some 00:12:13.100 --> 00:12:16.910 Fridays. To help support Bite Size Vegan’s educational efforts, please see the support 00:12:16.910 --> 00:12:22.470 links below or click on the Nugget Army icon or the link in the sidebar. Now go live vegan, 00:12:22.470 --> 00:12:25.810 force some compassion on someone, and I’ll see you soon.