TIFU by making my child vegetarian.

[u/CompetitionExtreme36]

I have a 6 year old son. We went to a fair a few months ago and there was a display of livestock that the public could pet.

Me, trying to be jolly, told him that he'd be eating them for dinner someday.

My son was shocked and asked me how was that possible. I told him that meat is made by killing animals and cooking them. He then asked me what all the meats were. I told him that it's chicken, beef, steak, sausages, salami and mutton.

Later that night at home, I noticed him seperating his dinner. He removed all the meat pieces from the rice and only ate the rice. My wife asked him what was wrong and he said he doesn't want to eat animals.

Thankfully, he's fine with milk and eggs. However, he continued refusing to eat any meat. A week passed and we went to the doctor. The doctor said that it's probably just a temporary phase and we should feed him vegetarian alternatives for the time being.

We now buy canned beans, lentils, greek yoghurt, olive oil, whey protein, soy nuggets and plant-based patties/sausages. We also order a cheese pizza for him.

It's been a few months now, and I've bought iron and B12 gummies for him. Even my wife and I are starting to go more vegetarian.

TL;DR: We went to a fair and there was a display where the crowd could pet livestock. I told my son he'd eat those animals soon, and he's a full blown vegetarian now.

[u/Droviin]

Never really thought about the dairy cows before. I suppose that also explains why veal is in steady supply.

[u/ItMeansFreedom → u/Droviin]

It’s just tragic because it’s been proven they mourn the loss of their babies, and it happens to them year after year. We’ve basically hijacked the female reproductive system for our own taste buds.

[u/Emkems → u/ItMeansFreedom]

damn. as a mom that makes me consider switching to almond milk etc

[u/saddingtonbear → u/Emkems]

I use plain oat milk in all my cooking and I don't notice a difference at all. The only time I do taste a difference is if I pour it into a glass and drink it normally, but I don't really drink milk anyways so it's nbd. It also spoils waaay slower than real milk so it keeps longer!

[u/Cypheri → u/saddingtonbear]

On the note of taste being different when drinking alternative milks, I actually really like the earthiness of soy milk if I'm making chocolate milk. I don't really care for soy milk in most contexts, but it's amazing with chocolate. I normally use almond milk because oat milk is still a bit hard to find regularly in my tiny town.

[u/Kaura_1382 → u/Cypheri]

Oat milk is very easy to make on your own, it literally takes 5 minutes. I've not had store bought oat milk till now as it's not readily available where I am and there's no need anyways.

[u/Quarkly95 → u/saddingtonbear]

I'm not even vegetarian and I still made the permanent swich to oat milk.

The only problem is that regular milk now disagrees with me minorly. But, like, I don't tend to chug milk neat so it doesn't cause too many problems.

[u/Emkems → u/saddingtonbear]

agreed that oat milk completely works for cooking but I had an oat milk latte and I hated it