Mum Secretly Feeds Meat To Her Friend's Vegetarian Kids

A mum has confessed to secretly feeding meat to her friend’s children, even though they’re being raised as vegetarians.

She says her parenting style is completely opposite to her friend’s, who’s raising her children not to eat meat, for moral reasons.

“The children are 13 and 14 and can’t even watch Harry Potter,” the mum explained on reddit. “We live next door to each other and our parenting styles are pretty much opposites but we are still friends and we look after each other’s children. They call me auntie and vice versa.”

The teens happened to pop over at dinner time one evening, and asked if they could have some of the soup the rest of the family was eating.

“The other day I was making vegetable soup for my kids. I always sweat the vegetables with bacon and end it with cream and bacon bits. The kids love it and it is easy to make. So we eat it quite often. The kids from next door came over at about the time I was serving dinner and asked if they could have some. I did think about it for a minute but decided it’s 99% vegetables so why not? They loved it.”

But when the teenagers’ mum found out, she was furious, and it caused a huge rift between the friends.

“A few days pass and I forget all about it and my neighbour asked me for the soup recipe her kids had because they won’t stop asking for it. Without thinking I give it to her and she reads that there is bacon in it and she flips out. She bans me from ever seeing her kids again and has gone to polite greetings when she sees me but nothing more.”

‘They’ve been sneaking meat behind their mum’s back anyway’

The mums have since hashed out their difference, with some home truths coming to light. As it turns out, the teenagers have been sneaking meat meals behind their mother’s back for some time.

“She messaged me out of the blue wanting to talk. Turns out the kidlets have been eating meat behind her back for a while now and confessed to her. She asked me what to do and I said if I was me I would let them eat meat outside of the house but stay vegetarian in the house. She said she hasn’t completely forgiven me for going behind her back even if I didn’t mean to upset her like I did, but she doesn’t want to stop being friends.

“As for her kids she will think about it and make her own decision on whether she will allow them to eat meat outside the house. She is just scared it will get crazy out of control but I have no advice on that.”

The non-vegetarian mum insists she doesn’t have a problem with how her friend parents her children.

“I think she is an amazing mum we are just different people with different ways of thinking and because of that we see things differently and sometimes we don’t understand each other. I am not against being vegetarian and my kids go to hers often to eat vegetarian meals.

“I just didn’t see it as a big deal at the time because that is how I am and how I parent. She saw it as a big deal and that’s perfectly OK she is justified to do so. We clashed over this and both of us didn’t understand the others way of seeing the issue and it caused a problem. I’m not trying to convert her kids to eating meat.”

39 Comments

- - meedee said
  - 18 Jul 2024
    11:44 am
As long as the kids knew there was meat in the soup then so be it.
If your kids are staying at my house then its over to you to school your kids on what they can and cant eat. Unless they are little and have allergies then its not my job to monitor their eating at age 13 and 14 they are old enough to do that themselves

- - mom323673 said
  - 28 Feb 2022
    8:13 pm
She didn’t want to be rude and say no to the teens, but she should have let them know what was in it. It half sounds like the other mother is forcing her children to be vegetarian.. they loved the soup and wanted more.. well I wonder why???!?

- - smart_ass said
  - 31 Jan 2022
    5:02 pm
Oh i could never do this if they are strict on diet.

- - ~Loui~ said
  - 01 Jan 2022
    12:35 am
I’d be upset if the other Mum fed my children meat if they were vegetarian, but she didn’t do it on purpose.

- - mumof3 said
  - 27 Dec 2021
    6:48 pm
It doesn’t sound like it was intentional and she didn’t force the kids to eat it, they wanted it. I don’t think anything was done wrong here except for the kids mum trying to push being a vegetarian on the kids even though they don’t want to be.

- - tessie said
  - 22 Dec 2021
    11:39 am
I’m glad the kids have owned up to already sneaking meat behind their Mother’s back. I’m glad that you are both back to being friends. Maybe ask her from now on not to let her kids come over when it’s meal time. That way you won’t have another issue over food.

- - mom223151 said
  - 15 Dec 2021
    3:39 pm
No respect I feel – it’s not right going behind her friends back and feeding them meat. I do not eat red meat – so I would take offence to my friends giving my family meat. Total disrespect.

- - emsalee said
  - 14 Dec 2021
    6:25 pm
It’s tough, but the kids are old enough to make their own decisions on what they eat.

- - Chelsea1905 said
  - 14 Dec 2021
    7:33 am
I think it was inconsiderate of the friend to feed them meat, but they are teenagers who can make that decision for themselves. If we raised our sons vegetarian or vegan I would be alright if they made those decisions as they grew up.

- - alrevedup said
  - 13 Dec 2021
    5:04 pm
I think I would probably over react at first but then come to see reason. It’s a bit of bacon and the children actively asked for it. Personally I always try to ask and stick by what other parents rules are but I occasionally slip a cheeky lolly to my nephews who rarely eat sugar.

- - Carolineb said
  - 13 Dec 2021
    1:55 pm
Depends on why they are vegetarian. Cultural reasons is a firm NO.
If it’s just because they want to live that way depending on how old the child is, it should be the child’s choice.

- - MoM418449 said
  - 13 Dec 2021
    11:39 am
If the kids are old enough to know what they like with respect to food, the mum should respect that – glad the adults worked it all out in the end.

- - rovermum said
  - 13 Dec 2021
    10:04 am
Good result in the end for the adults, but I think the kids are old enough to understand and if they want to eat meat (which clearly they do), they should not be forced not to.

- - mom466291 said
  - 13 Dec 2021
    6:38 am
They are old enough to make their own choices

- - Mrs Felix said
  - 12 Dec 2021
    10:14 pm
Pretty much extremely difficult to force someone to be vegetarian when we are living in a world full of meat temptation.

- - tea4tee said
  - 12 Dec 2021
    10:05 pm
Not a big deal, pretty bad to force your kids to be vegetarian if they don’t want to be (showing they don’t want to be vegetarian by wating meat behind their parent’s back)

- - mom482552 said
  - 12 Dec 2021
    8:07 pm
In this particular case I don’t think it’s a big deal. My daughter has friends who are raised as vegetarians, but have eaten meat products at school.

- - BellaB said
  - 12 Dec 2021
    7:12 pm
The more I think about it, the more inappropriate this is.

- - SAS185 said
  - 11 Dec 2021
    9:27 pm
It’s not exactly like she did it on purpose. It just slipped her mind. No biggy.

- - Lovesthecuddles said
  - 11 Dec 2021
    6:19 pm
My friend is Vegan but her husband isn’t. They only eat Vegan and she is happy for him and their son to eat whatever when they eat out.