help?
I've been vegan for almost two years. I'm a senior in college and I'm home for winter break. I'm really hoping that I won't have to move home after graduation, but with the economy as is, who knows.
I've been home for a week (three more weeks to go...) and I've already had enough. My mom is usually pretty understanding of my 'ways.' She's not vegan (or even vegetarian) by any means, but she's always sure to make sure that whatever she prepares has vegan options and that we find a veg restaurant when we're traveling. But she gets really angry and defensive when I prod my dad about his habits. Something about how if they respect my choice, I should respect theirs. Okay, fine, but I can't understand a 'choice' that has no positive benefits to ones health, the environment and we can't forget the thousands of non-human victims of this choice. And even if that weren't enough, the smell of meat makes me physically ill now. I can handle the smell birds (until tomorrow when I see the turkey currently in the fridge soaking in the sink), which is what my mom and my sister often eat. My dad, however, is a total carnivore, and I don't mean omnivore. He grills steak for dinner every night (and lunch when he's home). He often cooks bacon for breakfast. He still thinks this is a healthy diet. I really can't handle it for a number of reasons. First, that amount of fat and cholesterol with everything that I know about nutrition scares the crap out of me. I don't know how to get that across without it seeming accusatory. Second, the smell makes me physically ill. I have to leave the living room/kitchen area, open up windows, and run up to my room in order to not hurl with the smell of bacon or some other kind of flesh. Third, the idea that someone that I love can lack so much compassionate when it comes to this is something that I just cannot understand, no matter how hard I try. I've tried to ask him to not cook meat while I'm around, but he gets defensive and says that it's his house and I'll just have to deal with it. Whenever I bring up the nutrition aspect to my mom, saying that I'm worried about him and don't want to offend him, she becomes quiet like it's not something polite people talk about. Whenever I say little things about how veg*nism is healthier (for example, while at a vegan restaurant, I said that vegetables don't have cholesterol and my dad was insistent that they do if you fry them in veg-based fat, though he insists that cholesterol isn't bad for you anyway). I don't talk to him like I have in this entry (it's meat, not flesh, for example), but I'm never sure how to say anything without offending him and making him yell at me. My father and I are the strong personalities in the family, we like to argue, and my mom and sister would rather not and they always need to resolve conflict (oftentimes by telling me to pipe down). So, I guess I'm just looking for some support and how you guys live with omnivores. Anybody else have a parent still brainwashed by the Atkins craze of years past? How do you deal with it? I'm getting to the point where I can't even imagine thinking differently about diet 'choices' because I don't see nonhuman animals and their byproducts as food anymore.
I've been home for a week (three more weeks to go...) and I've already had enough. My mom is usually pretty understanding of my 'ways.' She's not vegan (or even vegetarian) by any means, but she's always sure to make sure that whatever she prepares has vegan options and that we find a veg restaurant when we're traveling. But she gets really angry and defensive when I prod my dad about his habits. Something about how if they respect my choice, I should respect theirs. Okay, fine, but I can't understand a 'choice' that has no positive benefits to ones health, the environment and we can't forget the thousands of non-human victims of this choice. And even if that weren't enough, the smell of meat makes me physically ill now. I can handle the smell birds (until tomorrow when I see the turkey currently in the fridge soaking in the sink), which is what my mom and my sister often eat. My dad, however, is a total carnivore, and I don't mean omnivore. He grills steak for dinner every night (and lunch when he's home). He often cooks bacon for breakfast. He still thinks this is a healthy diet. I really can't handle it for a number of reasons. First, that amount of fat and cholesterol with everything that I know about nutrition scares the crap out of me. I don't know how to get that across without it seeming accusatory. Second, the smell makes me physically ill. I have to leave the living room/kitchen area, open up windows, and run up to my room in order to not hurl with the smell of bacon or some other kind of flesh. Third, the idea that someone that I love can lack so much compassionate when it comes to this is something that I just cannot understand, no matter how hard I try. I've tried to ask him to not cook meat while I'm around, but he gets defensive and says that it's his house and I'll just have to deal with it. Whenever I bring up the nutrition aspect to my mom, saying that I'm worried about him and don't want to offend him, she becomes quiet like it's not something polite people talk about. Whenever I say little things about how veg*nism is healthier (for example, while at a vegan restaurant, I said that vegetables don't have cholesterol and my dad was insistent that they do if you fry them in veg-based fat, though he insists that cholesterol isn't bad for you anyway). I don't talk to him like I have in this entry (it's meat, not flesh, for example), but I'm never sure how to say anything without offending him and making him yell at me. My father and I are the strong personalities in the family, we like to argue, and my mom and sister would rather not and they always need to resolve conflict (oftentimes by telling me to pipe down). So, I guess I'm just looking for some support and how you guys live with omnivores. Anybody else have a parent still brainwashed by the Atkins craze of years past? How do you deal with it? I'm getting to the point where I can't even imagine thinking differently about diet 'choices' because I don't see nonhuman animals and their byproducts as food anymore.