My dad says I'm not a man if I don't eat meat?

Question

Im 15 years old and i have been a vegetarian for 2 years. My mom was diagnosed with some sort of mental illness and had to be taken to the hospital. So i am now living with my dad (he told me he doesnt know when my mom will get out of the hospital). I don't know my dad well because i used to see him only once a month, sometimes not even that. Anyway, he seems to be a really cool guy but he thinks any man who considers himself a man, has to eat meat. I told him i was a vegetarian and he said "no no no... No son of mine is a vegetarian" and at every meal he puts meat or fish on my plate and tells me to eat cause it's good for me. I told him being a vegetarian is a healthy lifestyle but he doesnt wanna hear it. Yesterday he made me eat fish because i was starting to feel sick and... I ate fish :( i feel so disgusted. I thought i was gonna throw up. I don't wanna do it ever again.

Help me please.

Answer 1

Just tell him you're trying to stay vegetatian as a choice. You may not do it for ever, but maybe compromise by having 3 nights of something other tham meat or fish is a healthy choice. Salads are pretty bad in the winter - but great for the summer. Soups and casseroles are better for the winter months so offer to cook the veggie options. Try to get a few second hand veggie cook books to dip into for ideas.

Mexican is good, as is some older traditional british stuff like leek & potato soup with crusty bread.

Veggie Haggis is a favourite of mine, and anything with potatoes or pasta is filling.

Try some buffet style nights where everyone helps themselves from what is cooked. You could have the veggie option while he has the meat options.



What he doesn't want to do is end up cooking two meals every night. To get around this - buy some ready meals to keep in the freezer, so when he fancies fish - just bung one of them in the microwave - simple.

I keep a stack of vestas meals in the cupboard for just such occasions!

Make it your job to search out and buy the options you like - then keep a stock. This will get around his problem of "what will I do for him?"

The easier you make it for him, the easier will be your time of it. Plus you will get some practice in cooking for yourself.

Answer 2

he's right. Your mentally ill mother has been a bad influence on you.

If it was really just a 'healthy lifestyle choice', then you wouldn't be on the verge of puking in disgust because you ate a little fish, now would you?

Many mentally ill people become vegetarians. It is a common sign of incipient mental illness, like other strange eating habits(chalk, hair, loose change, etc).

Perhaps it's not too late, and with therapy you can avoid a slide into serious psychological maladjustment

Answer 3

God did no longer enable meat ingesting till after the flood. I do undergo in innovations someplace interior the hot testomony asserting that this is greater proper to no longer eat meat or drink whine. In Genesis a million:29 God says, "I provide you each seed-bearing plant on the face of the full earth and each tree that has fruit with seed in it. they are going to be yours for nutrients".

Answer 4

You just have to chip away at him quietly and patiently. Study up on what constitutes a healthy vegetarian diet (hint: it's not all expensive and highly processed fake meats), collect some recipes and start cooking for yourself and occasionally for him. Discuss not only your cooking with him, but also your other interests so that he can get to know you as a well rounded person. Here are some useful links:



http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19562864/

http://www.pcrm.org/health/diets/vsk/vegetarian-starter-kit

http://www.happycow.net/becoming_vegetarian.html

http://vegweb.com/

http://www.vegalicious.org/

Answer 5

I've been in this situation myself back when I was a vegetarian. the best thing to do is to try to explain to him that meat isn't what you want right now. you can explain to him that possible in the future you may go back but right now isn't the time for you.

Answer 6

Outside of an institutional setting, it is virtually impossible to force someone to eat anything.

Learn to cook for yourself.



Your dad is "a really cool guy?" I disagree. He's an ignorant bully.



You ate fish "because you were starting to feel sick"? You were a vegetarian for two years, and your first response to illness is to eat fish?



Something certainly smells fishy.

Answer 7

Good for you for being a vego. haaha. if that were my father i'd tell him that slaughtering animals would have nothing to do with manhood and and if your mother has been taken into hospital and you are coping well then thats manly enough.



Stand up to him and tell him its YOUR choice and you will go through with it no matter what, and yeah. :)

Answer 8

If your dad wants to be fat and out of shape and force that lifestyle on his son, I am not sure what you can do about it. Sorry man. Hopefully when you are 18 you can get back into good shape.



Does your dad take a lot of prescription drugs as well? MOst vegetarians dont need that stuff.

Answer 9

So I guess Albert Einstein isn't a man?

So I guess Joaquin Phoenix isn't a man?

So I guess George Bernard Shaw isn't a man?

So I guess Sir Paul McCartney isn't a man?

So I guess Gary Yourofsky isn't a man?

Answer 10

**** your dad, no offence but he is full of ****. show him websites proving that he is vegetarian and if you really want to kick up a fuss tell him that he is generalizing people into his expectations which is only training negative and abusive behaviours apart from the fact that a stereotype is only put in place and enforced by small minded, arrogant people

Answer 11

Actually, you're not a man because you are 15 years old. Eating meat has nothing to do with it.



You have three realistic choices here:

- Purchase and cook your own food

- Learn to be more persuasive

- Accept the fact that you are still a child, living under your Dad's rules, and eat what you are served





BTW, whenever some kid posts here that their parents are forcing them to eat vegetarian against their will, the typical veg*n response is that the kid should do as they're told, and eat what they are given. Yet when it is a kid who complains that they are not being allowed to go vegetarian, the typical veg*n response here advises the kid to rebel, and refuse to eat meat.

Just another veg*n double standard I guess.

Answer 12

Your dad is right. Not about your masculinity, but you should still eat meat. Eating meat is the only way to keep the animal kingdom in check.

Answer 13

There are plenty of strong, masculine vegan men. It has been proved that a diet based on plants enhances athletic performance. Many body builders and athletes are vegan, such as Carl Lewis, Mike Tyson, Mac Danzig and Brendan Brazier. Several men that go to my gym are vegan and they are they have a much better phyisique than some of the puny men that live on burgers.

Answer 14

Who's meat?

Answer 15

Sounds like you have an abusive, ignorant father.

Answer 16

Well son you dad is right.

Answer 17

male chauvenist pig comes to mind

Answer 18

Your dad is correct. You won't be a man. I am a mighty man mountain.