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Topics: Sex and Relationships, Parenting, Animals, Food and Drink, Health
Poppy Bilderbeck
Topics: Sex and Relationships, Parenting, Animals, Food and Drink, Health
A man's relationship may be about to end after he fed his vegan daughter meat behind his wife's back.
There's a heated debate surrounding raising your child vegan, with concerns around making sure they have enough nutrients and develop properly.
However, convinced a vegan diet helped her conceive, one mum was 'adamant' about raising her daughter to be plant-based.
Alas, it didn't turn out exactly as the mum had planned, with her husband sneaking their daughter bits of meat when she wasn't looking.
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But is it bad enough a betrayal that it warrants a divorce?
Needing advice, the husband 'Carnivore Confusion,' wrote into Mail Online agony aunt Jane Green, explaining they've been raising their four-year-old daughter as a vegan since she was born, and despite his initial concerns for her health, she's been 'thriving'.
He continues: "She loves food, has a great appetite just like her dad, and it's something that I've really enjoyed sharing with her.
"Maybe a year or so ago I was eating a burger for lunch – my wife was out - and my daughter was fascinated by my food. I figured there was no harm in giving her a little taste to see how she handled it, whether it gave her stomach ache or anything like that, and she loved it."
Since then, the dad has been sneaking his daughter bits of meat whenever his wife is out, but the other day, he made a slip up.
Not thinking about it, the dad gave his daughter some chicken at a picnic, in front of his wife.
He continued: "My wife flipped out, started screaming at me that I was 'poisoning' our daughter and that I had no idea how she was going to react to the meat. At which point I had to confess that I'd actually been feeding her meat for a while now and that admission sparked another furious argument.
"Now, my wife is threatening divorce and says she doesn't know if she can ever trust me with our daughter again. I understand she's upset that I kept this little secret from her - but I can't help but think she's overreacting?"
The agony aunt responded by noting she used to do the same with her children but with sugar, banning them from eating it only to find out 'every time [her] children went to anyone's house, they single-handedly demolished the snack drawer and any sugar they could get their hands on'.
Green ultimately resolved she doesn't think the husband has done 'anything wrong' and his wife is 'overreacting' by threatening to divorce him.
She recommends an 'honest conversation' and said: "These kinds of impositions on other people's behaviour can be a need for control, which often masks an anxiety or fear. It's worth getting to the bottom of that.
"[...] Living up to someone else's standards of perfection is exhausting, and unrealistic. It's one thing to have an intention for your daughter to be vegan, but slips, even ones unconsciously (or consciously) perpetrated by you, are bound to happen.
"Far better that you agree, as a family, to have the intention of a vegan diet, with the acknowledgment that your daughter gets to try foods she wants to. Even meat."