July 22, 2004
Vegetarians & Cheese
There's someone I'm interested in, and I was giving my friend, Dallas, a play-by-play of the time I spent with him this weekend, getting him to analyze the situation in detail for me. At one point my friend asked "Is this guy a vegetarian, too?" No, I answered, he eats meat. Dallas was surprised. "You'd feel comfortable dating someone who ate meat?" Sure, I replied. It doesn't bother me. It's a personal decision each individual makes. Besides, most of my friends eat meat, too, and so does everyone in my family.
"But what if something serious happened with this guy," Dallas said. "What if you got married and had kids? How would you raise your kids? Don't you want your kids to not eat meat?"
Yes. This is something that I have thought a lot about, and I hope to raise my kids vegetarian or vegan. I know I will never cook anything for my family that includes ingredients I object to, like meat or dairy. But I also know that my partner would have to agree with me on how we raise our children. The hope is that, if I'm doing the cooking, they'll all eat vegetarian or vegan in my home. If they want to eat meat or eggs or whatever on their own, I can't stop them, as it is a personal choice, but I will not prepare it for them. I also hope that my non-vegan relatives and friends will respect me and not give my children foods I object to behind my back. If my child decides on his/her own to try eating meat, I can't stop them, but I hope no one will encourage them.
It's kind of like religion. Parents raise their kids in a religion and hope that they instill the values they approve of in their kids. Hopefully, the kids will keep the religion up. That's how I would hope it would be with my kids. They're raised in a vegan household where vegan ideology is taught, and hopefully they'll decide to stay vegan. I hope so, anyway.
But Dallas did raise a few good points. The older I get the more I start to wonder if the next guy might be "it." I'm not looking to marry any time soon, but the prospect of marriage is closer in my future every day. I've dated vegans and non-vegans. I never really thought about it before. I'm not freaking out, but it has raised some issues in my head.
Hopefully, though, none that will have finite answers any time too soon.
And now back to the studio...
Posted by Mallory | Filed under:
Comments
DATE: 8/12/2004 01:55:57 PM
I remember being horrified when I found out what rennet was. I gave up cheese on the spot, as hard as it was. At the time, there were no soy cheeses available locally (I still haven't tried them). As hard as it was to give up cheese, it was harder to eat that horrible, disgusting rennet. Over time I found some cheeses without it (Havarti was one). Now, many cheeses have a "microbial enzyme" instead of rennet. I'm just fine with eating microbial enzymes, thank you very much :D I'm very happy to be eating cheese again. I practically live on it ;)
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TITLE: Dating
AUTHOR: The Illustrious Mallory
DATE: 7/20/2004 05:54:34 PM
Posted by: Mandy at January 1, 2005 03:54 AM
