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Raising a Vegan Kid in a Non-Vegan World
Some of our friends literally eat their pets.
“I am a mean bergen,” my daughter says, with a mischievous grin, “and each bite I eat is a troll. Will you make them scream and plead for their lives as I eat them?”
My 4-year-old is enjoying a dinner of stir-fried broccoli, carrots, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, snow peas, mukimame, cashews, vegan protein strips, brown rice and teriyaki sauce.
Some families play airplane or choo choo train to get their kids to eat. I am #blessed with the least picky kid ever, but she does love to play with her food.
My daughter is vegan, as are my husband and I, and she’s play-acting the movie Trolls, where bergens are human-like monsters who think they have to eat cute little troll doll characters in order to be happy.
She instructs me:
“DJ Suki would be like, ‘I just want to spin some tunes — OH NO!’
And Guy Diamond always sings, so he should sing ‘Heeeeeeelp!’ as I eat him.”
The movie has a happy ending. One bergen realizes that trolls have feelings; she speaks up to the other bergens, and she convinces them all not to eat trolls anymore.
