The KInd Life Community Forum

Yes. My family, too, was raised on meat. For my family, meat is a sign of prosperity. They come from a history of starvation and poverty, so being able to eat meat all the time is a sign of doing well. So, when announce that my husband I were no longer eating meat, the reaction was one of "death". It was like I had stabbed my mother in the heart.

However, one month later, she prepared a vegetarian lasagne for us for lunch today...I was amazed. I mentioned to my daughter, that if she can not eat meat for one day a week, because of us, then I feel like she is supporting us.

It will take time, and once they will realize that you're not judging them, it won't be an issue about their choices, but a personal choice for you you.

We also got the "weird tree-hugger" reaction from my husband's family at first, but they have come around and even had a full vegan Christmas dinner for everyone! Well, the hunters of the family were not there, but it was a step in the right direction! My advice is to stick to your guns as you said and find out if there is a vegan group in your area that you can celebrate with around the holidays so that you can have a joyful, and delicious, holiday meal with people who share your beliefs. Good for your mother that she accepts your decisions. Many people take it as a slight against them, and many people think it is just a phase and they are waiting you out. Soon they will come around to the fact that this is your life now and that they better accept it or they won't see you so much. Good luck.

Sorry for all the posts, but the funniest reaction I recieved from my father-in-law was "Does this mean that we won't be able to eat hamburgers with our grandchildren when you have kids?!!!" It is sad that this is the ONLY way he can see bonding with grandchildren!

Hello everyone. Thank you so much for all the support and stories. It can be very hard dealing with family alienating you for, in what they term, being "different". Thankfully our friends have been supportive and have shown some interest in vegetarianism and being vegan.

The family that has been negative towards us remains negative still. We have attempted several times to patch things up, even though there should be nothing to patch up, like you all say, it's not like us being vegetarians/vegans is some evil act of God! Yet people portray us that way for wanting to be kind to living things on this planet. All we can do is hope that one day they will see our point of view and accept who we are now and not judge our relationship on meat and dairy for goodness sakes. We both are not ones to judge and not once have we judged them for hunting, eating meat, etc. All that would do is drive a further wedge between us and even show that vegetarians/vegans are judgmental just like them. Instead we kindly point out our reasonings for what we are doing and why it is important to us.

So as time goes along I will update you all as to how things are going with the family! It is nice thought that about 3/4 of our family is supportive of our change in lifestyle

Sorry for not posting in such a long time, we have had some pet issues and a friends mom's cancer to deal with. My wife had hodkins disease as child and we went and visited this lady who Tina has known most of her life to lend her support and for tina to help her emotionally and physically with the cancer since they have that in common. It's been a long and exhausting while but things are nearing normal again!

Hugs,
Craig and Tina

Oh wow I've never heard of such a reaction! I feel thankful for the minimal bitterness/feeling that I put people out that I've experienced! Well most people have already said it all, so I don't have much to add other than at least you feel at peace with yourself! I'm going to piggyback on what Islandgirl said. Someone once told me that their parents lived to be 90 and they ate meat/dairy, etc, so they're going to do the same. So I just said, without having even thought of this before, "Well my grandfather died of a heart attack after having had gastric bypass surgerey, most of my family on my dad's side is obese, and two more have had gastric bypass surgerey as well!" And of course, the same people had to add, on a later date when I politely declined their takeout Chinese food (and I would have eaten the veggies if they had any), "I think food like this is ok once in a while." Well great, then eat it! So I quietly responded, "I"m just trying not to eat meat." They know I started this "experiment" just 5 weeks ago, so I guess they're waiting for me to falter. Of course, it's necessary for them to gang up on me and say "Plants are alive. Plants have feelings." Oh goodness.

Does it make sense for people to look for something wrong in our diet? As if giving up and saying "why bother" is better than trying to make a positive change that still won't make the world perfect?