My sad tale...
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 6:14 am
Hello everyone
I haven't posted or even been on here for a long time. Life getting in the way big time. I can't think of anyone who would understand my current predicament, and I really need to unload, so here goes. No need for anyone to reply (unless by chance someone has been through something similar?) it is just therapeutic to put words to some of my feelings...
My situation is that I am going through a particularly awful divorce. I am finally putting an end to my relationship because of domestic violence which was being witnessed by my kids. We have two children, 9 and 6. They are lifelong vegetarians, and have always been as close to vegan as I can manage.
My ex has been mostly supportive of this - he has been on and off again vegetarian for 20 years, and even as recently as last year, read the China Study and Dr Matt & Dr Alona's book. He has bought vegan cookbooks and spoken about how he needs to send copies of the China Study to his family.
Now, to try and do anything he can to get to me, and because he knows that healthy vegan eating is so very important to me, when he is with the kids he literally feeds them as much junk food as he can. Afternoon snack yesterday was a croissant, chocolate milk and a chocolate bar. This morning bacon and eggs. My kids have never eaten bacon in their lives. My daughter, the younger one refuses to eat meat but is guzzling the chocolate bars and soft drinks. My son, because his father is treating him like his best buddy and not his son, and is also buying him a laptop and ipod etc is going along with the meat eating...he says that dad does and so it mustn't be that bad.
Most people don't think food is such a big deal, but of course lots of you on here do. I realise there's nothing I can do except keep talking to my kids about healthy food and tell them to notice how their bodies feel after good food vs junk. The law says nothing about this, the mediator we are seeing doesn't consider food to be much of an issue, but to my mind it's verging on abuse to feed children so badly. I think of their small bodies trying to fight back as they process large volumes of animal protein and fat which they have never encountered before.
I will keep talking of course to my kids of course about the damage that can be done by eating this way - to themselves and the animals and the earth, but in the meantime it just breaks my heart.
I haven't posted or even been on here for a long time. Life getting in the way big time. I can't think of anyone who would understand my current predicament, and I really need to unload, so here goes. No need for anyone to reply (unless by chance someone has been through something similar?) it is just therapeutic to put words to some of my feelings...
My situation is that I am going through a particularly awful divorce. I am finally putting an end to my relationship because of domestic violence which was being witnessed by my kids. We have two children, 9 and 6. They are lifelong vegetarians, and have always been as close to vegan as I can manage.
My ex has been mostly supportive of this - he has been on and off again vegetarian for 20 years, and even as recently as last year, read the China Study and Dr Matt & Dr Alona's book. He has bought vegan cookbooks and spoken about how he needs to send copies of the China Study to his family.
Now, to try and do anything he can to get to me, and because he knows that healthy vegan eating is so very important to me, when he is with the kids he literally feeds them as much junk food as he can. Afternoon snack yesterday was a croissant, chocolate milk and a chocolate bar. This morning bacon and eggs. My kids have never eaten bacon in their lives. My daughter, the younger one refuses to eat meat but is guzzling the chocolate bars and soft drinks. My son, because his father is treating him like his best buddy and not his son, and is also buying him a laptop and ipod etc is going along with the meat eating...he says that dad does and so it mustn't be that bad.
Most people don't think food is such a big deal, but of course lots of you on here do. I realise there's nothing I can do except keep talking to my kids about healthy food and tell them to notice how their bodies feel after good food vs junk. The law says nothing about this, the mediator we are seeing doesn't consider food to be much of an issue, but to my mind it's verging on abuse to feed children so badly. I think of their small bodies trying to fight back as they process large volumes of animal protein and fat which they have never encountered before.
I will keep talking of course to my kids of course about the damage that can be done by eating this way - to themselves and the animals and the earth, but in the meantime it just breaks my heart.