anyone know how i convince my mum to let me go vegan?

I've been vegetairian about 2 years now and i've mentioned to my mum about veganism but she got really annoyed and said it was going too far. It doesnt ease the guilt though. I've been trying to just refuse the stuff she tries to feed me, but she still wont listen. what can i do????

 

Just keep refusing her non-vegan food, and start making your own vegan food. It took my parents a long time to get used to my being vegan, but its been two years and they're used to it now; my mother is even really supportive of it, and my sister has gone vegetarian.

 

... it's your body, you decide what goes in, no matter how old you are, your mum doesn't have the right to allow you. If you're old enough, why not just get a job and buy the necessary extra foods to be vegan? If not, and you're REALLY determined, you could just eat whatever is in your house already that is vegan and that will probably be little enough that your mother will buy you the necessary foods.

 

if you have no money, its very easy to get malnurished goin complete vegan, just cus most foods are made with dairy even when its not needed. but you can still quit drinkin milk, usin cheese an butter, in your food, and just not be so picky about all the ingredients in some foods that are available to you. dont want to starve, but you can slowly work yourself into vegan

 

I have a really stubborn mom too... and I'm 32! I'm going to assume from your statements that perhaps you have one of those incredibly stubborn moms that says "just eat your food or you're grounded" or some other order that you're just not at liberty to "disobey."

If it was me trying to convince my mom before I was old enough to move out, I would start by asking her WHY she feels it is just too much - is it because she's worried that you won't get the proper nutrition? Or maybe she's worried about having to pay for *extra* groceries. Once you know why she feels that way, you can work on trying to change her mind and/or reason with her.

MY mom would have listened best to facts & statistics. If she's worried about nutrition, hunt around online (and this site) and dig up all the info you can find on why and how you CAN have a healthy balanced diet while being vegan. Information from "official" sources like the American Academy of Pediatrics or from a registered dietician would be even more helpful because you could say "and this is from a PROFESSIONAL Mom!" You could even suggest scheduling an appointment with your regular doctor so you could go in TOGETHER and discuss this... my mom would have listened to my doctor about absolutely anything.

If it's an issue with groceries, or even if you think it MIGHT be you could always offer to help pay for any "special" groceries you might want or need. Even at 12 I was able to babysit & pay for a few things I felt I needed that my parents refused to buy - and they were a lot more willing to support (or allow) my decisions when they learned that I was serious enough about them to pay for them myself.

Good luck! Tough parents can be quite the challenge to get along with some days.
love,
mom

 

Tell your mum that vegetarians taste better.

Ooops, not something you say to your mom I guess

 

thanks for the replies, im taking them all into account.i dont think the fact that the only other vegan i know is seriously malnourished helps in convincing her. even if that is because of a very serious case of anorexia. i think its the nutrition that bothers her, but balancing my diet is something im pretty good at seeing as i cokk my own food alot of the time anyway. being exam time im not doing it so much now which is where im probably going wrong. ive also picked up a few leaflets at an animal rights thingy and plan to go to our nearest city to get food this week, as theres not alot available here.
thanks x

 

Your best course of action is to learn how to cook. Really cook. I had to when I became a vegetarian 25+ years ago. It was either that or starve.

Make your mom some vegan food with your impressive skills.

One taste is worth 10,000 words of convincing.



x

 

yeah, ive tried winning her over with cooking food and she was pretty impressed. i thought i convinced her today by telling her some horrific facts, but then she got all funny about calcium.

 

i suppose the best way to convince someone that u wanna do something particular is by trying to preach it to them... i mean, u probably find very good reasons for wanting to go vegan, so why dont u just explain them to your mum?
if they are good reasons then she could go "ok u've convinced me".

i naturally think that vegans have zero reason to be vegans, but if they actually convinced me, maybe i'd turn vegan who knows? (so far they really really havent).

and please dont be offended by what i just said, im only expressing my opinion, which could also be your mum's.

the fact that u cook your own food already is definitely a good point, so maybe u could argue that it wont require extra work or extra money for your mum if u eat vegan food

 

Hungry strike. dont eat anything that isnt vegan. you'll win..

 

thank you. well we've come to a comprimise: i can cut out all dairy, but not eggs. i think she was nearly crying at one point when i was talking abut the treatment of the cows. at the moment im just avoiding eggs anyway and she hasnt even noticed. i think i'll continue like that for a while and start trying to convince her in a few weeks time.
cheers for all the help x