I would absolutely get myself dragged into the HR office for this but tbh I would seriously consider talking to this coworker and saying something like:

"You know, I was thinking about what you said about how I shouldn't raise kids because I would raise them vegan and you're right about that. It wouldn't be fair to the kids.

By the way it made me realise that you shouldn't be raising kids because you are purposefully raising them Catholic, to the exclusion of all other religions, and that is unfair and unhealthy for your children.

What you really need to do is to take your kids to Sunday mass one weekend, then to an ashram the next weekend, then to a gurdwara and a mosque and a synagogue and a mashrik al adhar... oh, and don't forget to teach them all about Lutheranism too - it's really important that you offer your children the opportunity to understand all of the reasons why Martin Luther believed that the Catholic church was detestable and a perversion of the Christian faith.

Let your kids pick which religion they want to follow. That would be the right thing to do.

If I want dietary advice for raising children, I'll go to a pediatrician. If I want moral instruction for raising my children, I will go to people who practice what they preach.

And if you want to feel better about what diet I choose for my own children then maybe I'll speak some words of incantation over the vegan meals I prepare for them and I'll convince the kids that this magically transforms the dish into meat.

Anyway, I appreciate these little heart-to-heart moments we can share together about raising children and how comfortable you are with me that we can be open about this. Let me know if you want to do it more often."

I would get myself sacked for saying this kinda shit...

Don't do it.

our household is all vegan. my partner went vegan as a teen. they were patient with me as I eventually drifted away from animal products and went vegan when our child was small. our child was raised vegetarian from day 1 but never really took to eggs and cheese in the first place. they're 99% vegan now, except for the odd halloween candy. we've been clear about where animal products come from without watching dominion/earthlings.

these days dairy and eggs but meat especially elicit an 'ew' reaction. there's one other kid we know that is mostly if not entirely vegan. there's a vegetarian out there or two. while lots of people including families we know eat vegan meals without pitching a fit, I don't know of any other vegan households. the vast majority of other kids are carnists and my child has described that as 'weird'. it hasn't been a big point of contention with friends or internal anxiety so far, thankfully. our kid knows it's a choice and that if they fuck up and eat animals by accident that's nothing to be ashamed of, but they also know that we'd be disappointed if they choose to stop being vegan.

all this 'omg kids are vegan' shit is a bullshit dodge, just another type of carnist brainworms and deflection from people's own discomfort with self criticism and personal moral reckoning. veganism isn't hard to explain to kids. it's a pretty clear narrative - so many kids books are about animals and nature as friends that deserve life and respect. not eating them is less confusing. the fucked up part is explaining how the vast majority of people don't give a single flying shit. I try not to be too hard on the issue when it comes to other people, partly out of some kindness to my past self, partly because I don't think it's fair to instill distrust of 98% of people in a child just because they aren't vegan.

diet-wise obviously it's fine for kids to be vegan. it's as healthy for kids as you make it. there are all kinds of vegan garbage food to eat as well as lots of healthy stuff. our kid is a picky eater but I bet that's true irrespective of carnist or vegan. salt and sugar and carbs transcend all diets. it sucks that processed vegan foods aren't subsidized the same way that dairy and meat are because it's harder to get kids into lentils than plant hot dogs and plant mcnuggets but it's not a big deal.

Millions, if not billions of people and families around the world have vegetarian or vegan diets because that's their food heritage, and because access to animal products is rare where they live. Children grow up eating that food because that's what it is: food. No questioning about alternatives or dual-meals (Wtf).

It's rather colonialist and eurocentric to assume that raising a kid vegan/vegetarian is somehow an innovation or something out of the norm, when it's not the case for most of human history and population.

I have a young child that we are raising vegan. It’s been straightforward enough so far, although she is still little so we haven’t had to deal with other people feeding her yet. Diet-wise it’s fine, usual suspects like b12 obv and pregnancy and breastfeeding has higher micronutrient needs, but that’s not specific to veganism.

Main issue is the social aspect, thankfully our families have been supportive but kids tend to bring up a lot of underlying sentiments and emotions, and managing that could be tricky especially once our kid is a bit older.

The other minor thing is allergies. Research seems to point to introducing allergens early in life to reduce allergies forming. Seeing as she will be growing up in a world where exposure to milk, eggs fish etc is pretty common we’d like to reduce the likelihood of her having severe reactions to these, but obviously that means we would have to feed her animal products :/

Your coworkers are severely lacking in perspective. There are hundreds of millions of kids being raised ~~vegan~~ vegetarian in India right now. It's fine.

Id suggest you sarcastically highlight their idiotic hypocrisy (do they cook vegan meals for their children every night? Do they sincerely think you should cook three meals - vegan, vegetarian and carnist - every night? Do they think "eating meat" means they have to eat meat every day?) but you probably have to spend a lot of time with them since they're your coworkers and it sounds like they're idiots that won't listen, so I wouldn't bother.
Whatever you can do that shuts them up the fastest and makes them leave you alone, is what I think you should do.
Alternatively get pamphlets from every religious denomination and give them to their kids if you ever meet them - they want them to have choice, right?

Lol ask them if they would raise their own kids with the meat or vegan option every night for dinner. Bet they fucking say no.

And regarding morals, every fucking family in the world raises their kids based on their own personal morals.

Your co-worker is an ass.

If your kid is healthy, I don't think you're obligated to feed them meat.

Now, if your kid is going out of his/her way to eat meet at school or whatever and tells you they want meat at home, you can have that conversation.

But if we're just talking about a kid's taste, what if you make casserole every night and the kid is tired of casserole? Is it child abuse to keep feeding them the casserole?

The dual food options idea is from some kinda' class strata I'm totally not a part of because I don't think the ruralites I'm around would even say something so stupid. The logistics don't even make sense. Are you supposed to just buy and throw out extra food/meat just in case they want to not eat vegan at some point?

Or was anyone here raised in a vegan household?

I wasn't, but I practically ate vegetarian anyways (with the exceptions of ultra-processed foods that happen to have animal ingredients) just because I was picky. Turns out I was willing to not eat a lot longer than my parents were willing to let me go without eating. So ultimately, I did have my own food separate from everyone else, but it wasn't like they prepared multiple options with the expectation have throwing away half. Can't believe someone would seriously suggest that.

That person is just bullshitting you and doing the normal sort of do-gooder derogation nonsense. I would encourage calling your coworker out if they ever try to do the liberal "having values is evil" thing to you again.

I do not have experience with this but I've talked with people and I think the biggest issue isn't what you do at home or even what they do at school, but getting family to understand you don't want them to feed your child animal products when your not around. It's not funny to sneak them a nugget. But I guess that also depends on your relationship with family and how much they respect you.

And I’m positive a nazi would also tell me to raise my child to be open minded to their ideals, so I’d take that kind of advice as a lark.

Teach them some Indian Religion or philosophy. Work done 😉

I don't have kids (yet?) but I was raised vegetarian (Indian upper caste family). A vegan diet can be easily adapted for a child's needs. I think it's good that the (uncalled-for) remark by your colleague made you think about this, it means that you care about this issue more deeply than most people do, who just feed kids what they are cooking for themselves. I think the point that another commenter made about getting kids exposed, in a safe way, to allergens is very important. I'd even go far as letting them eat meat very very occasionally - who knows, there may be a time in the future where your need to survive will be against your need to be vegan.

I actually started eating meat after I moved out of India, and I'm hoping to shift to a vegan diet when things are more stable in my life. But personally, even if I don't ever eat any other kind of meat, I want to be able to eat beef, in some symbolic and meaningless way at least. Hindu vegetarianism is a toxic thing, it is absolutely not about not harming animals but about upper castes adopting a "pure" diet, and even then they make exceptions because that is how this bullshit works. I loathe the way Indian vegetarianism is mentioned in a positive way without these aspects being known. The same vegetarians will never give up milk, even though they know about the hell a cow has to go through. In India, you are judged by your dietary habits, you may not be able to rent if you eat meat. I've seen my friends in school getting bullied because they got some meat for lunch. Sorry for this off topic rant, but had to vent.

Veganism is the healthiest diet a kid can eat, cornonary heart disease starts in childhood on a meat heavy diet. But more importantly you instill your morals to your children, you teach them it’s wrong to eat meat. Children are actually really receptive to veganism because we’re naturally animal lovers and it’s not hard to explain where meat comes from.

Sure they can experiment as they grow up, that’s natural and we live in a meat centric society. But that’s the risk you take in parenthood, your child is their own person and they can make their decisions as they grow up.

I think my first exposure to veganism might have been in middle school, when I picked this book off the shelf at a friend's house.

Weirdly enough, the parents were chud-ish.