Forcing Kids to be Vegan? | Parents Answer

Parents who raise their children vegan are often
criticized for “forcing their beliefs” onto their kids.

Or worse, accused of brainwashing their children
and robbing them of their freedom to choose.

Well today, the brainwashers answer back.

Hi it's Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome
to another vegan nugget. Raising children

vegan is a surprisingly controversial practice.
From concerns about malnutrition to projections

of social isolation, sometimes the hardest
part of being a vegan parent is fielding questions

and criticisms from family, friends, doctors,
and total strangers.

If you’re familiar with my channel, you’ll
know that I have a video series just for kids,

including several interviews with real vegan
kids. Well today I’m excited to launch my

vegan parents series featuring some fantastic
vegan families.

So let’s meet the parents, shall we?

There’s Jesse from the Bronx in New York
City, NY, father of Zachary, who’s 2 and

4-year-old Jesse Jace, whom you can meet in
my vegan KIDS interview series.

Martin and Katie from London, England, parents
of Sam, who’s 17, Jamie who’s 15, and

4-year-old JoJo, another
KIDS interview series star.

Shantelle from Cambridge, MA, mother of 8-year-old
Izzy, who lays down some serious wisdom in

my KIDS interview series.

Raffaela, from Lisbon, Portugal, mother of
5-year-old Vasco. Since my pronunciation leaves

much to be desired, desculpa, let’s let
him show you how it’s done:

Vasco: Hello, I am Vasco

Much better

Melissa from Ann Arbor, MI, mother of two
young adults ages 21 & 18 and 4-year-old Reuben.

Ellen from Maui, Hawaii, mother of 1-year-old
Sandy and 4-year-old Elvis, another show-stopper

in my KIDS interview series.

Crystal and Eric from Virginia, parents of
14-year-old Jordan, 8-year-old Alejandro,

both of whom feature in the KIDS interview
series, as well as two young adults who are

19 & 21.

And finally Theresa, mother of 10-year-old
Amina and Kara, mother of 11-year-old Jude

and 9-year-old Gala, with the whole lot them
hailing from Brisbane Australia and appearing

in my kid’s interview series.

In addition one of Kara’s three grown children,
India, chimed in as a vegan-parent-to-be

Since some of the Skype connections were a
little rough you can always turn on the captions

and read along.

In this interview series, these parents will
be answering a number of questions and responding

to common concerns about raising vegan kids.
And I thought what better place to start than

asking for their responses to the accusation
of making kids vegan by force.

Jesse: Well, I feel that it’s quite the
contrary. When you raise your child eating

meat, you’re forcing your beliefs on them
because you’re not telling them what they’re

eating. You’re giving them food-like items,
like hamburgers and hot dogs, and chicken-shaped

fingers in the shapes of hearts and stars.
You know, we have animals around him and he

has no desire to eat the cat, no desire to
eat the dog. In its purest form, he wants

to eat fruits and vegetables. So, at an older
age, if he really decides of his own free

will that he wants to eat animals, he’s
more than welcome. But, you know, right now

we’re just allowing, we’re giving him
choices and he’s more than happy to stick

with the vegan options. I feel it’s not
forcing him at all. I’ve taken him to social

events, and he never, ever once thinks about
eating meat or eating animals. If anything,

he asks me, “Wow, those people are eating
meat,” and he thinks it’s insane. So,

I think it’s quite the contrary. When we’re
out and about, he never says, “Daddy, mommy

please I want to eat chicken,” like that
doesn’t happen. He’s happy, he’s healthy,

so I don’t see it as you’re forcing your
child in any way.

Martin: I think people have to remember that
you’re not forcing anything, what you’re

doing is actually closer to their nature.
You’d have to be disturbing their nature

more to redirect them towards meat, dairy,
and eggs. I think people get confused that

just because it’s the majority it doesn’t
make it normal. What we’re doing is allowing

them to be in-touch with their nature and
keeping them there. We don’t have to lie.

Now we make sure we are absolutely truthful
about everything. And they’ve made their

own informed decision, we haven’t forced
anything upon them. We told them, this food

comes from these animals or we educated them
and they all responded with wanting to go

vegan. And that was contradicting, especially
for my teens. Thirteen, fifteen years of information

telling them otherwise. So, I think people
have to realize they’re forcing more negative

stuff on their children by saying eat this
stuff which causes this harm to your body

and causes harm to animals and the planet.

Shantelle: I think the same could be said
about a traditional American diet. I think

that if you are giving your child hot dogs
and hamburgers and chicken, isn’t that forcing

your beliefs onto your child, as well? So,
you know, I always tell Izzy, if you decide

when you get older you want to eat meat – which,
he’s always like, no way – never! That’s

your choice, but I want you to have the information.
I want you to know how this impacts your body,

this impacts the world, this impacts the lives
of the animals that we share this world with.

Because the world is not ours. The world belongs
to all of us. So, you have to respect everything

that is on earth with you. So, if you can
decide that you want to eat meat down the

line, and you feel comfortable with that,
you know, I’ve done all that I can do. But,

you know, my goal is to give you the information
and lead you down the path that I think is

best for you, as your parent. So much of it
is about just educating your children and,

I feel like with veganism, the only thing
we’re trying to do is make the world a better

place. Anybody that tries to fault you for
that, I feel like they may need to take a

look at themselves a little bit and try to
ask themselves why they feel like it’s so

offensive to try to live cruelty-free and
be healthy. So, I think that’s a bigger

discussion than anything else.

Raffaela: Accusing parents of forcing their
beliefs upon children doesn’t make much sense

to me, because all parents – vegan or not
– will use their beliefs as guidance to

raise their children. That is kind of a normal
process. But, in case of veganism, we are

not using our beliefs. We’re using our knowledge.
These are two very different things and this

knowledge is so valuable for them, that it
would be very stupid for us not to use it.

Melissa: Raising their child with meat is
forcing your beliefs upon someone else.

I was forced to eat meat as a child. That was
a belief that was put on me, so.

Ellen: To me, it just doesn’t make sense
that you would think that it would be brainwashing.

Because all that we’re really doing is informing
them of the truth. There’s nothing brainwashing

about it. The opposite is more brainwashing
than the other. You know, to lie to them and

to tell them that something is pork, not pig,
You know, to say that it’s beef, not a cow.

That’s more diluting the truth than just
simply saying, this is a cow. And we never

try to talk to Elvis like, you need to feel
this way, you need to think this way, this

is how we think. I always respond to his questions
with like, well, this is how I think.

You can decide for yourself. If you’re raising
your children in something they naturally

think on their own, be kind to animals. Something
that they naturally don’t want to hurt animals,

they don’t want to see animals suffer. And
also to respond to their questions, and to

just speak about the topic, in a way of like,
“this is how I think, you can do your own

research, you tell me how you want to do the
research, what do you want to learn about.”

In no way is that brainwashing by any means.
We don't make Elvis eat in a certain way

When he asks, people say,
“oh do you want to try this?”

Like his friend was eating keifur the other day – do you
want some? And he said, is it vegan? And she

said no, there’s milk in it, and he was
like oh, no thanks. He didn’t say like,

oh, well I’m not allowed, or my mom doesn’t
let me. He was like, no I don’t want to eat that.

As parents, it’s our duty to raise our children on the foods that bring the most health.

We’re doing our children a disservice
if we’re getting them addicted to junk food,

and food that is not healthy for their bodies.
I think it’s important to raise our children

to not feel like they have to be like everybody
else. This is what everybody’s doing, so

you should be doing it even if it’s unhealthy
for our bodies, even if it is harming animals

that don’t want to die. We should be encouraging our children to be who they are, as individuals.

Eric: I thought that’s what parents, I mean
I’m not supposed to force something… you know,

We raise them to what we think is what’s
best. And people won’t understand it unless

you’re a parent, then you know that, everything
I do is what I think is best for them.

Our beliefs of treating others how we want to
be treated. I don’t see how there’s anything

bad as far as raising them to not have the
mentality of hurting animals and eating them.

Crystal: Other parents think that, if you
eat meat – there’s a disconnect – you’re

not hurting animals. They’re food, so…

Eric: We’re extreme because we’re vegan.

Crystal: Yeah, we’re different, we’re
hippies, and what else? We’re aliens.

My mother-in-law says we’re not ordinary people.

Theresa: Yes, I had one friend tell me that
I’m forcing veganism on Amina , and she’s

only doing it because she’s scared of me
and doesn’t want to lose my love, and approval,

or whatever. And then I said, you know, I
never got an option when I was a child.

I never got an option to go vegetarian or vegan,
meat was forced on me, dairy was forced on me.

Are you giving your children a choice?
That’s what I asked her. And then later

on, I told Amina that she said that and Amina
laughed pretty hard because there’s no way

I can force anything on her, she has a very
strong mind, she’s very strong-willed.

India: Someone has said to me before, you’re
just going to raise it vegan, it doesn’t

get a choice. I just said to them, if you
raise your children eating meat, then did

you ask them if they wanted to eat meat? Did
you ask them if they wanted to be a Christian,

or did you ask them if they wanted to wear
clothes? Parents just bring their children up...

Kara: …by your own standards. You bring
your children up by your own standards

India: By whatever you think is right, that’s
what you should do.

Kara: And, you know, what I like to say is
when I’m against cruelty, I’m not going

to allow my children to be cruel to animals.
No way! I want them to be better people than that.

I bring them up vegan so that they’re
helping the animals, and the planet, it’s

for their health. Why wouldn’t I teach my
children that?

Theresa: You teach your children tolerance,
to accept all ethnicities, and all cultures,

and to accept all lifestyle choices, and be
kind to everyone. But as soon as you suggest

being kind to animals, everyone loses their
s---, you know. It’s really crazy.

If you educate your children, and are honest about
where your food comes from, I doubt that any

child will willfully choose to continue eating
animals.

I hope you enjoyed hearing from all of the vegan
parents! Be sure to check out the video description

below for links to their social media accounts so
you can follow each family’s journey.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on raising kids
vegan in the comments below! And stay tuned

for more to come in the vegan parents series.

If you liked this bit of a brainwash, do give
the video a thumbs up and share it around

to help other families. If you’re new here,
I’d love to have you as a subscriber.

I put out fresh content covering all aspects
of veganism every Monday, Wednesday and some

Fridays. To help support Bite Size Vegan’s
educational efforts, please see the support

links below or click on the Nugget Army icon
or the link in the sidebar. Now go live vegan,

force some compassion on someone, and I’ll
see you soon.