4 Ways Growing Up Vegan Prepares Kids for Life
The challenges of growing up vegan teach secret, and immensely valuable, life skills
Raising vegan kids can be challenging for parents and kids alike, but each challenge comes with a number of unexpected benefits. Here are just a few:
1. Being a vegan kid can be lonely.
Only 1% of American youth are vegan and 3% are vegetarian. Neither of my girls has any vegan friends at school. If they opt out of partaking in a treat at a gathering because it’s not vegan, they are often the only ones to do so.
They can’t buy lunch at school. Any meal sold at school not containing meat features a lot of (government-subsidized) cheese. Sometimes they have to pack a lunch for a field trip when their friends will be having pizza. Sometimes they eat before or after a birthday party or watch all their friends eat cake while they have none.
How this challenge can benefit them:
Not being able to eat what everyone else eats means that my girls have also, at times, been touched by efforts their non-vegan friends have made to accommodate their beliefs. Whether it’s a vegan cupcake at a party or the inclusion of hummus wraps on the sandwich tray, they have both…
