Hi everyone! So I've decided to go vegetarian, yay, but my parents are unsupportive. It didn't come to much of a surprise to them, as I'd previously been pescatarian a few years back. But that hasn't reduced their negativity towards it.
I've been eating a 90% vegetarian diet for a good month and a bit, and then went on to have a blood test as per my parents request. My results came back well, with no defficiencies that are associated with protein and iron and such. Yet my parents still want me to have meat 3 times a week as a "compromise".
I've tried taking things slowly; firstly by letting go of red meat and then poultry. I'm still eating seafood once or twice a week, hoping to ease off it over the next few weeks. So, from my perspective, I'm not all of a sudden removing a key component of my diet (and therefore give less of a shock to my parents).
So I'm wondering if anyone else has had similar problems when becoming vegetarian, and if so, did your parents eventually turn the corner? Or does anyone have some advice that might be beneficial in my case? Thanks!
I became a vegetarian at 12 years of age. My mother was not supportive, in fact, she told me I would die if I pursued such a diet. She also made me cook all my own meals from that day forth, presumably as some sort of deterrant and to make me want to join the rest of the family and their meat eating ways.
It didn't deter me though. I knew eating meat was wrong and I did not want to partake in the suffering it caused so I continued on as a vegetarian, cooking all my own meals, and not having any support in regards to my dietary choices. This was 18 years ago miind you. I have since gone on and made the natural progression to veganism. I've never had 'bad' blood results. Everything has always been exactly as it should.
Honestly, if you are passionate about vegetarianism, you are going to do it no matter what anyone says. Ultimately, what can your parents do if you just stop eating meat altogether? Are they going to pin you down and force it down your throat? Unlikely. They will possibly get a bit angry at you, try to reason with you are make you see it from their perspective.... but in the end they will eventually just accept that you are a vegetarian and that it is important to you and that nothing they say will change that.
When I was younger I just said to my parents at the dinner table that I wouldn't be eating meat anymore - I didn't really ask their permission I just stated it, and while it was momentarily tense and intense, they actually quite quickly didn't mind and didn't take very long to become basically supportive of my choice. That was my experience, but everyone has a different dynamic in their family - different personalities, you included. So I'm not saying at all what will work for you or what you should do. Be yourself
