More and more people are making different dietary choices lately – whether it’s for health reasons, because of a concern for the environment, or over moral objections – and many of those changes mean no longer eating meat (or any animal byproducts, in the case of vegans).
If you know a passionate vegan, there’s a good chance you also know many of them are not quiet about their choices, or about trying to convince you to make the same ones. Everyone has to decide for themselves, though, and what’s the best course of action when people who take different paths still live together under one roof?
That’s the question this bacon-loving father is asking now that his daughter is a practicing vegan.
Dad here, old fart, loves his daughter to pieces but I’m struggling to see eye to eye with my teenager and wife on this one.
As a Midwestern family, their meals have always revolved around meat and potatoes, but when his daughter decided to become a vegan, he jumped on board to help her make the switch.
We’ve always been a meat eating family, we live in the rural Midwest and bacon for breakfast is pretty much a given. This year my 14 y/o daughter decided to go vegan, and I jumped onto her support team with enthusiasm. We learned how to substitute ingredients, cook new things, try new things, I adjusted our budget to include more expensive vegan substitutes for her, etc.
Then, there was an incident with a pan.
None of this has been a problem for me until recently. She saw me cook bacon in a pan, and then I rinsed it out to load in the dishwasher. She exploded in anger (teen years, I’m not too fussed about the anger explosion, I know she doesn’t mean it) and said that that was HER pan for vegan food. I was completely floored and said, kiddo this here is a family pan, older than you, it’s not YOUR pan.
She asked for pans to be specifically designated for cooking vegan, and he agreed.
She asked me to purchase her a pan that she can solely use for vegan food. I didn’t want her to feel weird about food, so I said sure, and ordered her a few colored ones that are only for her. The reason they’re colored is so it helps me remember that I’m not to touch them unless I’m cooking vegan.
That wasn’t enough, though, and then she asked that they all stop eating meat at home to stop the cross-contamination.
That wasn’t good enough. Now apparently the dishwasher is ‘contaminated’ with animal product, and the fridge has ‘bacon grease fingers’ on it (because I eat bacon and then touch the fridge) and she’s asked me and her mom to completely stop eating meat at home. I don’t mean I literally touch the fridge with greasy bacon hands, because I wash my hands, but it’s clearly enough that it upsets my daughter.
He and his wife disagree on how to handle it – she thinks that they should make their daughter comfortable in her own kitchen while he says he’s not going to stop enjoying the things he loves in his own house.
frankly I’m on team hell no, her mom is much more amenable and strongly wants me to consider taking our daughter up on the request. My wife’s reasoning is that both our parents live close so we can eat meat products there, and that she doesn’t want our daughter to feel uncomfortable in the kitchen.
My daughter says she is fine with cheese and butter in the fridge, but it’s specifically meat products that make her feel sick. Now I’m sorry for her, but I feel like she just needs to adapt and live side by side, because I’m not going to stop eating bacon in my own house.
Look out, folks – here come the comments.
Mostly, people believe more compromises can be made so that everyone can continue to eat what they want.
image Credit: Reddit
Others suggested the daughter needs a (kind) reality check about all of the ways the world is not going to change to accommodate her.
Image Credit: Reddit
And yeah, learning to cohabitate with people who don’t share each and every one of your beliefs is one of life’s necessary lessons.
Image Credit: Reddit
Other vegans weighed in, and they were surprisingly on the father’s side on this one.
Image Credit: Reddit
“Feeling sick” is something she’s definitely just going to have to get over.
Image Credit: Reddit
I’m definitely with the dad here – it’s his house, he pays the bills, he eats what he likes. Sure, it’s great that he’s willing to support his daughter, but he also needs to teach her that living with other people will always involve compromise.
What do you think? Let’s hash it out in the comments!
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