I Forced My Vegan Daughter to Cook Meat

Family arguments over food choices can get messy fairly quickly. In this story, our reader tries to respect her vegan daughter’s lifestyle by keeping their meals separate, but things take a turn for the worse when the daughter decides to take matters into her own hands. What started as an effort to accommodate her daughter’s choices quickly turned into a bigger issue.

We got a message from our reader.

Thanks for sharing your story! We’re really sorry you’re dealing with this, and we’d like to give you some tips that might help.

Taking responsibility is fair.

It’s a matter of actions having consequences — she made the decision to throw away perfectly good food, and it’s fair to ask her to make up for it. If she ruined your meal prep without any discussion, taking responsibility and helping out is a reasonable way to address the problem. Having her prepare the meal was intended to make her realize the real cost and significance behind the food that was wasted.

Respect goes both ways.

Everyone's dietary choices should be respected. She chose to be vegan, and the family has gone out of their way to accommodate her lifestyle by preparing separate meals. In return, she should respect others’ choices and not interfere with the meals that aren’t hers.

Throwing away the meat dishes was overstepping, especially since the family takes care to prepare vegan options for her. Respect is a two-way street, and boundaries should be maintained on both sides to keep a healthy relationship.

Talk to her.

It’s important to recognize that she may have felt uncomfortable about having meat stored next to her vegan food, even if everything was sealed. Let her know you understand her feelings, but also explain why throwing away food wasn’t the right solution. Finding a middle ground could help avoid future issues.

Set clear expectations for future situations.

Your daughter may have thrown out the meat because she felt uncomfortable having it near her food. While her feelings are valid, so are yours. Set clear boundaries about how you’ll store food in the future, so this doesn’t happen again. Agree that she won’t throw away any food without discussing it first, and reassure her that you’ll respect her meals too.

Family relationships can get pretty complicated, especially when respect and boundaries are tested. In the story about forcing a vegan daughter to cook meat, it’s clear how tricky these situations can be. Something similar happens in this story, where our reader’s husband embarrassed her in front of everyone over one small thing.