A Girl Announced She Was Becoming A Vegetarian & Cried When Her Mom Made Her Stick To Her Word
p_ponomareva | ShutterstockAfter her daughter announced she was adopting a vegetarian diet, the mom expected her to stick to her decision. However, when they went out to dinner, the tweem decided she'd rather have a burger than any of the non-meat options.
The mother refused to let her daughter back down, ultimately reducing the girl to tears. Now, she wonders if she was wrong for not allowing her daughter to change her diet just for one night. But maybe expecting her daughter to follow through on a commitment was exactly what this mom needed to do in order to teach the tween an important lesson about responsibility and expectations.
A mom shared that her tween daughter recently decided that she wanted to be a vegetarian.
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Sharing her story on Reddit, the 45-year-old woman revealed that her 12-year-old daughter made the decision to become a vegetarian two weeks ago. The mother was supportive of her daughter’s new dietary choices. “I was fine with that. I would support and encourage her if that's what she wanted,” the woman wrote.
However, her daughter made it more than clear that she did not approve of her family continuing to eat meat after she made her decision. “The past 2 weeks she has been looking down on the rest of the family with snooty comments like ‘You know that will just sit in your colon right?’ and, ‘It doesn't make you THE murderer, but it definitely makes you the accomplice.’”
The woman admits that she and the rest of her family are beginning to grow tired of her daughter’s attitude, especially since, after a long day of work, the mom said she just wants to unwind with whatever meal she feels like eating.
For her son’s birthday, this mom decided to take her family out to celebrate at a local restaurant that served vegetarian options for her daughter. However, when they were giving their orders to the waiter, the mom was surprised by the meal her daughter had requested.
The newly vegetarian daughter decided to order a burger at the restaurant since it was a ‘special occasion.’
When the woman questioned her daughter about her dinner decision, she told her mother that she was “taking a break from eating a vegetarian meal” since her brother’s birthday was a special occasion.
The woman told the waiter to cancel her daughter’s order and insisted she stick to her word to be vegetarian. “I looked at her and said, ‘Look here missy, you have been nothing but a jerk these last few days with your passive-aggressive comments since going vegan, vegetarian, whatever! You either commit to it now or you get nothing at all,’” the woman said.
Her daughter responded by placing her head on the table and bursting into tears. She refused to lift her head for the entire dinner and did not have a meal. When they got home, she went straight to her room without saying a word to her family.
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The woman’s husband believes that his wife was in the wrong since she “ruined” their night out by reducing their daughter to tears. She asked other Redditors if she was perhaps a bit too harsh on her daughter.
Some believed the woman was wrong for forcing her daughter to stick to a decision about her own body, while others criticized the girl for being hypocritical. Commenters pointed out that it was okay for her daughter to go back on a decision she originally believed would be a good idea, writing, “She’s 12. Starving her to punish her for being rude isn’t productive, but it could lead to an eating disorder,” and “Your kid is a child. Children are allowed to change their minds, and try new things.”
Others were quick to pass the blame to the daughter, however, adding, “Calling out hypocrisy is how you get kids to think more carefully about their values. The daughter proved through her catty comments that she's capable of dishing it out. It’s time to start taking it.”
Going through phases and lifestyle choices is just a normal part of raising preteens and teenagers.
It is true that as children grow into adolescents, they may want to try different lifestyle choices and will go through different phases. As quickly as they become interested in something, they can decide that they want nothing to do with it.
Like the woman’s daughter, young teenagers will go through multiple lifestyle changes in order to determine what they like and dislike. It is important for parents to support their children’s choices as they undergo inevitable changes, as long as they are not hurting anyone.
Depriving her daughter of a meal as a punishment for not sticking by her original dietary decisions only caused a rift between the woman and her daughter. However, just as she was making her own life choices, the woman’s daughter had to respect the choices of those around her, even if they did not align with her own.
Does that mean mom just smiles and lets her daughter commit and quit on a whim? No, but when a tween or teen makes the decision to commit to a huge lifestyle change like becoming a vegetarian, it should be a process that parents are involved in. Expectations should be set, and parents need to talk through everything that might be a challenge and how to set their kids up for success.
Kids are going to change their minds, and that's okay, but they need to learn to take responsibility for their choices. Mom may have been extreme in refusing to let her daughter order a burger, but her intent was good. For the mother and daughter to reconcile, they need to better understand each other’s perspectives. Only then can they truly see where each is coming from.
Megan Quinn is a writer with a bachelor's degree in English and a minor in Creative Writing. She covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on justice in the workplace, personal relationships, parenting debates, and the human experience.
