Mother’s Day Special: 3 Vegan Moms Talk About Raising Compassionate Kids

Being a mother is hard enough, now add being a vegan mom to that equation. Ask me, I’ve been vegan since 2009 when veganism was a “cult”. After over 12 years of being part of this “cult”, I am confident I made the right decision and sleep well knowing I am doing all I can to reduce the suffering of other beings. 

Raising kids vegan has its ups and downs, I won’t deny. We don’t live in a very vegan-friendly world yet. The issues are small, like ‘what will my child do at other kids birthday parties’, or big, ‘what if my child wants to eat animals?’. These are questions that I as a (vegan) parent constantly grapple with too. 

So this Mother’s Day, I spoke to three other moms, about their vegan journeys, the reasons they choose to do what they do and the repercussions of these decisions. I also ask them some tough questions about choosing for their kids and if they will be comfortable allowing the children to eventually choose for themselves.
 

MEHER MALIK, MUM TO A 13 MONTH OLD
Dancer & Pianist
 

 @meherbanjaran | @banjarababy 

Meher went vegan four years ago after choosing to be a vegetarian when she was nine-years-old. This was a result of her research and study to figure out why she was having many health issues.

“When I went vegan, it really made me feel better and I reversed all my illnesses. I was also educating myself about the various issues with animal cruelty. The changes in me were physical, mental and spiritual and I realised this is how I would want to raise my daughter.”

Her goal is to raise her child vegan, “not by force, but by education, by exposure.” She is sure the better sense in her will understand owing to her upbringing with pets and exposure to other animals.“Even if her choices tomorrow change, I will never use coercion or force. I will always try to remind her of the reasons we made these choices,” she says. 

When it comes to social situations or even shopping at supermarkets where her daughter may be enticed to try foods that may contain animal products, “Questions, communication and empowering children will definitely help parents deal with these situations better. I will never make her feel guilty but rather empower her to choose for herself.”

NEHA DHAMIJA, MUM TO A 4-YEAR-OLD
Lead Developer at a Start-up

Neha turned vegan overnight in late 2015 for ethical reasons. “I don't understand how I missed something so obvious for so many years,” she adds.

She is mother to a four-year-old and says, “Motherhood has opened my eyes to the dairy industry in a different perspective. While breastfeeding my child I actually understood the plight of the cows whose milk we so easily take.”

"People think I am depriving her when I say I don’t give her a daily glass of milk or add ghee to her food. Also relatives and friends don't get to offer her whatever they want (most things actually). That makes me a very snooty parent. But I think other than that, this is very normal, all parents raise their kids based on their own principles,” emphasizes Neha.

SIRISHA GADEPALLI,  MUM TO TWO
Founder at Neemboo.in

@neemboo.in 

Sirisha transitioned to being a vegan few months after her first child was born. When her own mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, she started reading up about how dairy is a major contributor and eliminated it from her diet slowly.

“But the final push came when I started breastfeeding and then pumping. I loved breastfeeding but hated the pump - and that's when I realized how painful it must be for the cows in the modern dairy industry. To imagine if someone were to forcibly pump my milk (with no control on my part) over and over, and that too not for my baby was too painful a thought to bear. And that's when I decided to go vegan,” she adds.

She has made it a point to start talking to her five-year-old about about why she is vegan.

“I feel that they will eventually grow to understand and accept veganism only if the voice comes from within.”

My Conclusions

I can’t say that any of the approaches are right or wrong. When you decide to bring a child into the world, you are responsible for the decisions you make for your kids. Every parent, vegan or not, grapples with that. You don’t know how these decisions will pan out for your child, but you do know that you make them with the best intention at heart.

As vegan parents we want to do what is best for our kids, we want to be able to have honest, open communication about our food and lifestyles and we want to empower our kids to make the right choices. Whether they make choices that align with our values or not, only time will tell. I will take the opportunity to speak for all vegan parents when I say that we know that living by example is the right thing to do and we can only hope for the best.