Turns out I was worried about nothing

[MrsKey]

My daughter, who had been homeschooled her whole school career 1st, 2nd and half of 3rd grade, recently started attending a new school.

At her request I bought her a lunch bag from PETA that says "No Animals In Here". It is very cute. But I worried a bit about my not quite 8 year-old making a clear statement that she is a vegetarian. I worried about teasing and harrassment.

Turns out I was worried about nothing. Most of her friends are very encouraging and she's even met one kid in her class who is vegan and one who is an aspiring veg*n in a household of meat-eaters.

Part of it may be that she attends a private school where discipline is strictly enforced and harrassing and teasing is covered by a zero-tolerance policy. But I just think it is really cool that in a school of not even 750 students she's already met one vegan and one child who really wants to be a vegetarian but is having a hard time since both of her parents are meat eaters.

So I have to say I'm pretty psyched!

[bethanie]

You know, I work in public gradeschool, and while I don't 'push' my vegetarianism on others, I do discuss it with the children over lunch every once in a while if they ask me. There's an Indian boy in our class who's also vegetarian, and every once in a while the children ask questions about what it means...I just answer them. My daughter also goes around proudly stating that "My Mom's a vegetarian. She doesn't eat meat," when I visit in her classroom or have lunch with her. Even though she's not a vegetarian. I think it's great that with exposure, children become much more open to that influence. So your daughter is setting a great example. Plus lots of the children look really jealous when I pull out a big juicy looking peice of fruit and start munching away. "That looks like a delicious apple Ms. Bethanie," is actually a little sad when they are eating either overcooked/canned cafeteria food...or processed, prepackaged stuff their parents send in for them.

Anyway, I think that's great. What a bit of diversity she'll provide in her classroom.

B

[iceflower]

Thats so good to hear! I know very few vegetarians, especially kids and I don't know really any that enjoy fruit.

[mushroom]

My kid's private school is very accomodating to vegetarians and even serves a vegetarian hot lunch 2 or 3 days a week.

However, I did have a big problem with one teacher who forced my then 8 year old to serve chicken...:(

[VeggieBiker]

Wow, sounds like you picked a good school :)
I'm really impressed, by the way, that your daughter feels so comfortable and confident about her vegetariansm, that just rocks.

[strawberry]

Just out of curiosity, where did you get that lunchbox? I looked on the PETA website but they didn't have it. Maybe they just are not selling it any more, but that is really cute.

[MrsKey]

Just out of curiosity, where did you get that lunchbox? I looked on the PETA website but they didn't have it. Maybe they just are not selling it any more, but that is really cute.

http://www.petacatalog.org/prodinfo.asp?number=AT210&variation=&aitem=7&mitem=23

I found it in the PETA catalog - nears as I can see they do still sell it!

[MrsKey]

Wow, sounds like you picked a good school :)
I'm really impressed, by the way, that your daughter feels so comfortable and confident about her vegetariansm, that just rocks.


She's a pretty amazing kid. Though I give a lot of credit to her dad who is an omni but is so accepting of and proud of her dedication to her vegetarian diet that she feels confident being "different" because she knows that not all omnis are going to hassle her about her choices!

Thanks everyone! This forum is such an awesome reasource.

[Rawmama]

I have to agree she sounds very self assured, which i'm sure her homeschooling helped alot with :)

[mamacass]

That's awesome! My son goes to a private school (Montessori) and it is not a problem at all - there are several kids in his class that are vegetarian as there are alot of Indian family's that live in our area and go to his school.

[Skylark]

I think homeschoolers are used to being different. :-D I suppose I'd know, since I was homeschooled until the age of 17, when I started college.

Maybe it's my personality, being homeschooled, or both, but I often love being different. I'll invent ways to be unique.