The Littlest Vegetarian?
Well, maybe not the littlest one, but certainly a budding vegetarian. Trey, over at Daddy, Papa and Me has posted the most adorable story about their daughter’s seeming innate vegetarian leanings.
Emma and I went over to the buffet and I got some of her and my favorites, rice, salad, mashed potatoes, and then I took a couple crabs and put them on the plate. Out of the corner of my eye I SWORE I saw her recoil in disgust, but I ignored it.
We got back to the table and I got the crab-eating utensils out and started to crack open the cooked critter.
Emma looked up at me with a very sad face and pointed to her eyes and said “It eyes” (it has eyes) and then to her mouth and said “It mouth” and then gave me a really sad puppy dog big-eyed look like I was doing the most horrendous thing a papa could do.
Well, I thought it was pretty adorable. Just go read the rest of it.
As for our family, I’m a vegetarian, but the hubby is not. In fact, I like to joke that he was on the Atkins diet before there was an Atkins diet. He likes meat that much. Before adopting, we decided jointly that we wouldn’t raise our kids as vegetarians, but that they would have vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals, and if they decided to become vegetarians (0r not) when they’re older, that would be fine too.
Parker eats pretty much everything. The only thing I’ve seen him turn down is something that had horseradish sauce on it. He seems to particularly like anything in a tomato sauce. Oh yeah, and pizza. He’s been known to have a veggie burger for lunch (no bun, cut up into little pieces), if I’m making it for him. He also likes broccoli, green beans, and corn. If his Papa is making lunch or dinner he might have some kielbasa
So, I don’t know if Parker will turn out to be a vegetarian or not. I have a strong feeling that he won’t, but at this point I’m not invested in either option for him. As long as he’s eating well, and healthy, I’m happy.
February 3rd, 2005 at 10:38 pm
I trust that Parker will make sound choices when it comes to diet because of the variety of food he’s had to sample now. If anything, he probably will grow to enjoy meat, yet not need it for every meal.
February 4th, 2005 at 3:42 am
Bruce has been vegetarian for almost 30 years, and myself about a decade or so. We are raising the girls vegetarian.
It does seem like many if not most tots have this natural tendency towards not wanting to eat animals…after all, in their board books, animals are their friends. Somehow when we become adults an amazing disconnect happens…we make this mental separation about animals and meat (i.e., it’s not dead animal, it’s “meat.”). Bruce has always said if more people saw how animals are actually slaughtered and processed, they would become vegetarian (although there’s 10,000 other reasons).
The hard part, I think, is going to be explaining to the girls why their friends eat meat when they are older.