The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Eating for Kids - M.s.j., Dana Villamagna [12]
Creating a Vegan Family Mission Statement
One very concrete way to define your family’s own vegan success is to create a family mission statement related specifically to veganism. This means spelling out, in writing, why you want to be a vegan family and what “being vegan” means to your family. Here are some questions you may want to ask about your brand of veganism:
◆ Does it extend beyond food to clothing?
◆ Does it extend beyond human family members to pets?
◆ Does it mean eating vegan at home, and mostly vegan out in the nonvegan world of school, friends, work, and travel?
◆ Do you draw the line at some dairy, no eggs? No eggs, some dairy?
Vegan Vocab
A family mission statement is a shared vision of a family’s values, plans, and goals as they relate to the current and future functioning of the family (in this case, as they relate to veganism).
◆ What if a product has no animal products in the ingredients, but says, “may contain traces of milk,” due to the manufacturing process? Is that still a vegan option in your family?
◆ What about honey?
◆ Do you allow eggs from chickens raised only by you or friends in conditions you’re certain of (as is in the case of Whole Foods founder John Mackey who considers himself vegan but eats eggs from his own free-range chickens)?
◆ Does “being vegan” mean animal-product-free all the time for the adults and mostly vegan most of the time for kids? Or does vegan mean all vegan, all the time for everyone?
◆ What exceptions, if any, will your family make? Birthday parties? Grandma’s pie? Not offending your hosts’ cultural food norms when traveling to a foreign country?
What are your bottom-line behaviors, so to speak? No meat whatsoever would be one most vegan families can agree upon. Another one might be if there’s a vegan option in a situation, it’s expected that’s the one you’ll always choose.
Think about exceptions to rules. What if one of your family members (say, a tween-age son) wants to try to eat meat for a while? Do you allow him to experiment? Does he have to pay for it with his own money, keep it in a separate place in your refrigerator, and prepare it in a different pan bought by him for that purpose? What if one of your children wants to be vegan, other than for Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food ice cream? Do you allow one favorite nonvegan product in the home for the reluctant vegan family member?
Whatever the final mission statement looks like, be sure to get input from all family members who are old enough to participate. Even kids as young as preschool age can contribute their thoughts and opinions. The older the child, the more input (and perhaps spirited debates) you’ll find coming your way.
Remember, the process of creating the mission statement is as important as the final product. This is the forum for everyone in your family to talk about why they want to be vegan—their thoughts, feelings, fears, reservations, and inspirations—and what they don’t want to give up or give in on. Good stuff. Bad stuff. Questions. Beliefs. Ground rules.
Be open to revisit your family statement in 6 months or perhaps every year. Like your family, your idea of “vegan” will likely mature as time goes on. Keep your mind—and your family’s dialogue—open.
Off-the-Wagon Moments
There are times—whether it be a meal, a day, a week staying with the grandparents, or even a month or two—when living vegan may be more difficult for your child. This could be due to travel, your work schedule, illness, or just simple daily chaos ramping up a notch or two. All of a sudden your typical vegan lifestyle becomes temporarily derailed.
Don’t beat yourself up if your family falls off the vegan wagon. Just take a breath, figure out what you