We’re trying to raise Maya vegan without meat until she is about three years. We’re not that strict since she was offered a deviled egg thanks to uncle Alex! …and every once in a while she eats things like pancakes or breads with eggs mixed in…
Although Maya doesn’t eat meat, every once in a while we like to throw in some meat for our “adult” dinner. Maya looks very closely at our plates and often swaps our bowls of miso soup with hers if ours our more full… since she eats hers so fast 🙂 So we have resorted to a sort of meat camouflaging by mixing in the meat into the same vegetables she’s eating… While we are eating she often points to our plates and says the word “Onaji, Onaji …Onaji!”, and we reply, “yes, same” (in english). …at this particular dinner, we simply covered our salmon with spinach.
At some point while we were eating, Maya points to my plate and to our astonishment she said “FISH!, Fish!” …We were both caught off guard and quickly turned our heads. Thinking we were caught red-handed, I gave in and said “yes, fish”. Our plan didn’t seem to work, she could see right through our disguises. …after a few seconds, Debbi realized she was pointing to the fish printed on the soup spoon that I was eating with rather than the fish on our plates! I couldn’t help cracking up laughing and Maya soon joined in.
I’m not sure we are setting the best examples here. We may want to just explain that the meat is for adults and not hide it from her, but I gather that will only work for so long… maybe one night? before she gets curious. So for now, until she is about three (and maybe ease into it a little sooner), we are just going to have to live with this little lie.
Maya is 22 months… two months away from the big 2.o!
EA
