Vegans and vegetarians: How supportive are/were your parents of your veg*n diet?!
So I'm wondering if it it the norm to have parents supportive of one's veg*n diet or unsupportive?
Also, how old were you when you became vegan, and what decade were your parents born in? I'm wondering if perhaps parents of a certain generation were more or less supportive.
If your parents started off unsupportive and became supportive, why do you think their attitude changed?
Answers:
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
I first went vegetarian when I was in 6th grade. My parents were not supportive at all. Every day they'd tease me or tell me that I need meat to survive. My mom once told me that I'm going to end up in the hospital and die. What kind of parent would say that?
Sadly, I stopped for a bit in 8th grade because I couldn't take all the sh*it from my parents. I'm now 15 and I made the choice to go vegan about a month ago. :)
My parents still hate me for it, but eh, its my decision. My mom is Filipino and she was born in the 50's? or 60's? Not sure. My dad is American and was born in the 60's I think. I think it has a lot to do with how you're raised. My dad believes God put animals on earth for us. Me? I don't really care much for God, but I do care for animals. :)
I remember mentioning it to my mom when I was in high school, she told me not to because it would be dangerous. I later became vegan (raw vegan in the summer), and taught her a lot of information about animal cruelty, the health benefits, etc. Now that she understands, she became vegan, as well as a raw vegan in the summer. =)
My mother is 53 years old.
I am 38, and started this a while back. My parents had no problem with it, but then I've been married for years and haven't lived with them in a very long time. My parents were born in the 40s.
Many of the parents are freaking out because the kids aren't doing what's necessary to replace protein. They'll just eat salads, which will only lead to malnutrition.
My ma was fairly supportive of it though she insisted on questioning me thoroughly, my dad would make a few snide remarks for a month or two.
Now they are grand, probably because i showed them it wasn't a phase & that its healthy (skin cleared up etc) Though they were worried at the weight loss, i dropped a handful of kilos but am basically at the average weight now
I went vegan about a year ago, January 2010. In the last few months of 2009 I was slowly transitioning to a vegetarian diet, but during Christmas I just stopped eating any animal products and became vegan. When I went vegan I was 15, now I'm 16. My parents were both born in 1960, my father in Poland and my mother in Puerto Rico. Both of them are foodies, and most of my upbringing has been in Europe, and I have a lot of experience with 'fine dining', street food, etc., and I was never picky growing up. I am a foodie as well, albeit a vegan one. :)
At first my parents really didn't want me to be vegan, but I should probably mention that before I became vegetarian (and then vegan) I had had an eating disorder, however, by the time I became interested in issues concerning the environment and animals, I had already gained weight (and a stable mindset).
So the first couple of months were so-so in terms of acceptance, as my parents would be great about it some days, and really pissed about it others. Nowadays, though, they are much more accepting, and my parents actually have reduced their own meat consumption quite a lot. My father buys vegan/vegetarian cookbooks whenever he goes on trips, and he loves to cook out of them. My mother also makes sure to order me vegan food whenever we have to fly long-distance and both of my parents buy me loads of vegan foods.
I'm not sure why exactly their attitude has changed, but I suppose it must have been time; I guess as they saw that I was not degenerating by eating the way that I do, they have realized that I'm not going to become a sack of bones!
All in all, my parents are pretty supportive; the only person who gives me a lot of flack for being vegan seems to be my aunt, who says she's vegetarian but still eats fish...ironic, huh?
my mom was born in '58, my dad was born in '61. im not vegan, but i became vegetarian shortly after i turned 13. my dad is kind of neutral on it, hes okay with buying vegetarian food but he hasnt really made any comments and thats pretty much it. at first my mother was really supportive, and she still is in a way because she actually went vegetarian for me, and because she wants to lose weight. [well she likes to call herself a vegetarian, but shell eat stuff with meat broth or bacon bits or dressings with anchovy in it and stuff like that] but she has this pathological fear that im going to turn *gasp* VEGAN! and ive told her that i wont do that at least until i move out because she just simply wont allow it [she thinks people need cows milk to survive or some crazy sh*t like that] but she doesnt believe me. and she calls me a radical constantly, which isnt exactly fun.. but i shouldnt really complain because i know a lot of people have it worse than me. so 50/50
I was 13 when I cut down on my meat consumption, 15 when I only ate fish (and sometimes meat if I were out and was offered - I was a little weak willed and didn't want to offend anyone) and 17 when meat was gone from my diet altogether. My parents were born in the '60s.
They didn't really understand it and thought it a little strange (they're BIG meat eaters), but were fine with me choosing my own diet, they would just comment a few times about whether or not I was healthy, more due to ignorance on their part than not being supportive of my diet. They found it more funny (although not unsupportive) when I left home and lived a lifestyle of everything organic and as natural as possibly. I live a very vegan lifestyle, and while they respect the earth (big recyclers, love animals, save natural resources) I am, and will admit, a little over the top about how organic my lifestyle is.
So, in short, they didn't really understand for a while, but were always very supportive of how I chose to live my life.
I'm not a vegan, but I'm a strict vegetarian, so no milk, eggs, or meat for me :P
My parents are divorced, so there's too different stories.
My mom: Not really. She will offer vegan food to me, but only accidentally vegan, like spaghetti and tomato sauce, rice and beans burritos, pb&j sandwiches, salad etc. But she does buy soymilk by my begging, so I eat alot of cereal and soymilk :P She's like 48-ish I think.. (Is it sad that I don't even know?)
My dad: I'm over at my dad's more, and he says whatever I do is my desicion. He is a nutritionist and believes that it is possible to get all your proteins and more through plant products. Since I refused to eat meat, he just stopped buying it. He's pretty much a vegetarian now. We do have cheese and eggs around that house, yet we use replacement milk? Haha, I don't know, but he gets alot of replacements and supplements; he's completely ok with it. He says it's healthy and he just like it.
My dad is I think around the same age as my mom. 48 or 49..
Well it goes either way :P
At first, both of them were very upset about it though to be honest.
I probably have a stranger background than most --
I slowly started transitioning into a more vegetarian diet beginning around five (stopped eat pork and at 8, stopped eating plain meats like steak, roast, meatloaf, etc). My parents were still able to get me to eat meat if they mixed it into casseroles and the like. I preferred peanut butter sandwiches over turkey ones, and my parents were cool with that.
I developed an eat disorder when I was a teenager and stopped eating almost anything. At that point, my parents gave me appositely anything I wanted to eat. If all I would eat is watermelon, that's what I got. Of course they weren't supportive of my eating disorder, but they were more or less forced into accepting me being vegetarian (they had bigger issues to worry about).
I didn't become vegan until I left home two years ago when I was 20. My parents were born in the mid-50's. I wouldn't say my parents are "supportive" but they respect me as an adult who can make her own choices. When I visit, my mom tries to make some meals for me, but other times she tells me to cook something if I want. It took my dad a LOT longer to accept my lifesyle, and I know he still doesn't agree with me AT ALL. But for a long time, he would tease me horribly, make derogatory comments, and try to force me to eat meat and so forth. Finally I confronted him about it (because he was hurting me so much) and he said that he thought I was saying that he was sinning by eating the meat. After I cleared my beliefs to him a bit, we are able to respect each other's differences more.
I became vegetarian when I was 15, so a little less than a year ago. My parents were born in the 50's in Mexico. At first they were not supportive of it at all, mainly because vegetarianism was unheard of back when they were growing up, and they thought that one needed meat to survive because that's how they were raised. They kept trying to get me to eat meat but I held my ground and would not give in. But eventually they began to accept it, mainly because I would educate them about vegetarian diets and how I could still stay healthy by being one. They still aren't completely accepting of it, but they accept it more than they did a couple of months ago.