I'm profoundly impressed by those brave and excellent humans who are raising their children as vegans. Doing that takes a special kind of fortitude and courage and I salute and honor each and every one doing this service for their child and...in the process...for all the rest of planet Earth.
Think of it this way, there are many many more humans out there who are raising their children (usually the boys, but sometimes girls too) to "hunt". Now think of whether these parents...who are teaching their children to kill other living beings...beings who are doing them no harm and are simply trying to live their lives. Think of these parents and consider whether they ever receive any flack about "brainwashing" their children. Or any sort of negative feedback whatsoever. I betcha it is either minimal or nonextant.
I'm not even going to address the obvious absence of any negative feedback to parents who raise their children to eat the dead bodies of beings who lived briefly in horrid conditions and were then killed for "profit". Who says a word about such "normal" parenting? (aside from maybe us "weird" vegans)
So...raising a child to be kind...to be consistent...to show respect and to be non-harmful to others likely elicits accusations of "brainwashing" and raising a child to harm others and support oppression and horror is...well...normal.
If that doesn't make you reconsider whether "normal" is necessarily a positive...well...you might want to take your reconsider engine in for a tune-up.
In the meantime...if you are a vegan parent raising vegan children...wow...I'm in awe of your courage and your determination. Thank you. Please give yourself a pat on the back and a hug from me. You are amazing.
8 comments:
My kid (7 year old) is very proud of herself :) She's also navigating the absurdity of it all, reporting back that other kids ask, "How can you be alive without meat?" She and I laugh about it. Some kid even ask about protein and my kid knows there's more protein in plants, so she tells them that. It's pretty cool that the conversation is happening in grade 2! She also declines the candy that have gelatin in them (gummy bears, etc), so now the teachers at daycare and school are reading the labels and getting different candy. It's glorious.
Oh so right! Kudos to vegan parents!
It's true that the hardest part about being vegan is the social/cultural pressures. Parents who meet this challenge with the best interests of a child as well - Hooray for them and all of us!
This society we're in is propped up by demented fibs that are intended to make our worst crimes to others not only go unpunished but rewarded. No matter how vile the practice is, it's normalized and made invisible. Everything is okay if you don't question what's hidden. We learn that young...
I think the best chance we have at a better world starts with parents who don't indoctrinate but who nurture instead. Allowing kids to ask questions and to do everything in your skills to help them reach the true, right, correct, and honest answers is a DUTY of a good parent.
Yep, that's what I think...
It seems that love isn't so much instructing a child to conform, as it is to guide them to make good judgments. And that can't happen without reality. Kids are owed the truth.
I've heard endless accounts of parents who lie to their kids about what and who they're consuming. The trouble adults go to to disguise the betrayal... Love the cat, eat the chicken. Swallow and don't ask. That is sooooo creepy to me. I wish these parents knew that the lies cripple emotional wholeness... For the kid it becomes a life sentence of dodging his/her own conscience. Or worse, to be numb to it entirely...
There's a viciousness in teaching kids to deny the most sacred, precious connection they have to others. Especially if it's because they don't have the courage to seek and inspect the truth themselves. That's inferior parenting. Poor us, that's what most of us got. :(
We're not really meant to harm. Those who teach and learn this are the only hope for us all.
Thanks VE - You provided lots to think on!
*****
The relationship you have with your daughter D.E.M. is so cool! It's true there is a lot of silliness in a nonvegan world. Might as well laugh at it... And accept the tears when they come too. I imagine your daughter will have a very rich life. Wonderful!
Thanks B.E. and V.E.! It's been fascinating watching this kid. We have to make sure to laugh the stupidity off because she needs to attract the flies with honey (and live in this wicked world among others).
I get such evil pleasure imagining the other kids going home and saying at dinnertime, "R. is a vegetarian. She doesn't eat meat." And the parents coming up with such b.s. that she's not getting protein--but feeling like losers for eating animals. heheh
Thank you for commenting DEM and Bea:
DEM: It's a difficult and often thankless job to bring a child up in a manner that refrains from harm to others. But...boy am I glad there are those who do. You're an inspiration to the world and to human parents everywhere. Thank you!! (and you're causing ripples all over the place) :-)
Bea: When I saw that graphic it really came home to me how much difficulty someone faces who tries to teach and practice gentle living and transmit those ways of being to their children. There are struggles with learning/doing such stuff for ourselves as grown-ups...how much more burdensome to include doing such for a new Earthling too. Wow.
Every being on the planet would be wise to pay homage to those parents of excellence. :-)
It's astonishing, isn't it, at what's considered brainwashing. I'm sure the term gets used to describe vegans more often than not, whereas in reality... But I guess if you get enough people indoctrinated into thinking that the horrible is normal, well, no wonder so many things are topsy-turvy in this strange world of ours.
An interesting article and graphic. I am shocked that parents bring children up to consider that hunting is okay, but of course if the parents don’t see anything unethical about killing animals for pleasure themselves they will teach their children to consider hunting in a like manner even though they know that many people would be shocked. I don’t see veganism as brain washing, no parent is going to teach their child anything that is contrary to their own ethics or ideology. Children make their own decisions when they grow up anyway, as I did to become vegan though my parents were both meat eaters. The fact is many children find meat unpleasant and many do not like to eat it seeing through the incongruity of their parents who teach them not to be cruel to animals. These parents often force their children to eat meat , if that is not brain washing than I don’t not know what is.
Thank you for commenting Christine. You rightly point out that the term brainwashing means "...destroying a person's basic convictions and attitudes and replacing them with an alternative set of fixed beliefs." (https://www.wordnik.com/words/brainwashing)
Undamaged children aren't normally disposed to harm others and indeed are upset and traumatized by violence. Veganism wouldn't replace this basic attitude/reaction but forcing/persuading/coercing children to engage in violence would mean that the child was thinking/acting in accordance with an imposed set of beliefs/behaviors. Which pretty much fits the definition of brainwashing.
Well said.
Thank you for commenting HGV. Topsy-turvey well describes it all.
Post a Comment