Over 25's - what issues are you facing?

I write a little about this in my blog. Am married with 4 month old baby. Wife is vegan.

Issues faced:

-vegan wedding. This went down spectacularly, but we had to stand our ground prior to event when family kept pressuring us to accommodate for corpse-munching, secretion swallowing guests...which was pretty much everyone attending, save a handful.

-Vegan pregnancy. Midwife was surprisingly supportive throughout the pregnancy, and neither of our parents seemed that concerned about our diet and the impact on the pregnancy. Our biggest issue was making sure wife was fulfilling the recommended daily nutritional intake. She had weird cravings, most harmless, but one to do with cheese.

-Raising baby as vegan. During pregnancy wifes mum and nanna would very rarely harp on about all the foods baby was going to miss out on. Some of my friends raised the issue once or twice, arguing 'surely you won't indoctrinate your child' or 'surely you'll give them a choice?'. They didn't press the issue thereafter.

At the moment baby consumes only b-milk (milk as it should be known). We're anticipating some kind of grandparental concern once baby starts consuming solids. Our other concern, wife's more than mine, is the social aspect of our child growing up. She'll be seen as different at school, and from our experiences, we know what usually happens to kids who are marked as different by other kids. Also, attending kids parties and being made aware that party pies and frankfurts are a no no...how will our child fare? Will we have to prepare sweets and snacks?

These are some of the issues

Oh and vaccinations, which contain animal parts apparently.

Edit: yes, i am older than 25, no, I am not -old-...just an old kind of young

Oh, oh, a thread aimed at me....I'm so excited!!

Thank you for not putting an upper age limit on the thread  

Ok, first I will get the pregnancy and raising children question out of the way because that's easy. I don't have any and I won't be having any. Easy. lol. But, ok, if I did I wouldn't hesitate to be raising them vegan.

Career...I don't have one...I have a job! But I assume you mean in relation to a career either conflicting with or in line with my values? The only thing I have to say about that is I would, of course, prefer a job where I felt I was having a positive impact on issues that encompass my values and beliefs. It surely would mean I could enjoy going to work instead of feeling like work gets in the way of all the things I actually want to be doing in life! And it's not all that satisfying to be working to line someone else's pockets.

Weddings/Parties/Anything - Our wedding was 10 years ago. Back then, I was 10 years younger than I am today! Back then, I was a vegetarian and believed that my choice was my choice and I shouldn't "preach" to others. 10 years later, I am a very different person, and I think that I would have a huge issue with having meat served at my wedding, so I probably wouldn't have one!
With regard to the parties, I haven't been to a BBQ in a long time, and I don't know what I'll do if I'm ever invited to another omni BBQ. I socialise very little these days, which is unfortunately, partly due to my veganism. Although, I am improving a bit in this regard. I have managed to go to a couple of my husband's work functions, I just feel like a complete outcast at them!  

Serious relationships - as I said, I am married and he is a meat eater. All I can say is, it's getting harder to deal with.
How am I supposed to feel when we both head off for Derby Day next Saturday and he heads into the grounds to attend the races, while I'm part of the jumps racing protest going on outside??? Don't get me wrong, he is facing a dilemma about whether or not to accept the invitation he received, and he definitely opposes jumps racing, but if he chooses not to go, he will have done so, so as not to upset me, not because he wants to take a stand against the cruelty in horse racing. Am I expecting too much? Probably.

I am really sick of people not being able to see that raising your child as an omni is just as much an indoctrination, and just as much a lack of choice, as raising them vegan.

BTW, congrats on the vegan wedding, that would have been awesome.

You are not expecting too much.

Lurking with interest on this one.... Under 25 though

Thank you, I just feel like I should be happy with whatever reason makes him take a stand. But doing it for me doesn't feel like he'd be doing it for the right reasons.

I don't have any issues O_o

Career: I'm in sales. I sell print. No cruelty issues there.
Partner: He's a soy drinking, free range only egg eating, limiting his cheese consumption vegetarian.
Children: HA! Not yet. Unless you include my fids (furry/feathered kids) and only my dogs consume meat/bones.
Parties: too bad so sad no meat in my house. I'm ok with cheese platters and dips and such, mostly because my b/f eats these.
Friends: they are all very excepting.

My fiance and I recently had a 100% vegan engagement party. I made sure even the alcohol served was from vegan origins.

The amount of compliments we received on the quality of the food was amazing! We also had loads of people saying how much they preferred our food choices over the standard dry piece of fish and dodgy chicken breast.


Issues I face - The majority of my friends don't understand my reasoning and still do the same tired jokes. Boy are they getting old now...
I reckon I hear the "Where do you get your protein?" every time I meet a new person - getting sick of that one too...
My fiance isn't vegan (she will sometimes eat cakes and things that contain eggs and milk) - That is becoming an issue for me. I hate it and we always end up having the same 'talk' after she downs a gross cake. It ends with her saying "I don't know why I eat them because I never enjoy them"...

I have older vegan friends who have raised 2 vegan boys (now 6 and 8). They said there are tough times when friends/family/outsiders got narky about how the kids were being mistreated, malnourished, etc. But they reckon that if you plan well (for things such as parties, school trips) it isn't too much of a big deal.
Their kids have been taught that a plant based diet is not only 'normal', but very beneficial for many reasons. The kids are little educated vegans, they actually understand why they have different eating habits than the rest of their friends.

Hard times arose when they had to leave their kids (especially when very young) with the grandparents. There were apparently issues with the grandmother sneaking the young kids a glass of milk. Which I think is horrible.

I'm not 25.. but I could comment on this too

my boyfriend of 3.5 years is omni, but eats vegan at home.
I don't know how I'd go with dating... but I do just fine loving someone who eats meat, but he is also very accepting and encouraging of my diet.
We have also both decided if we were ever to get married the menu would be 100% vegan I mean, it's OUR wedding, not everyone elses right? People are amazed by good vegan food, since they just assume you eat salad, the more you can open people's eyes, the better!
If I have people over for dinner, I will NOT cook meat or dairy - bottom line, my house, my kitchen... my rules.
if we get takeaway, they can get whatever.
If I have children, they will be raised vegan, it's been proved time and time again you can be healthy as a vegan, so I don't see an issue, if it's good enough for me, it's good enough for my children.
I work for an internet company, I don't know how cruel that is, but I do plan on getting into a better career than that, hopefully something to do with animals.