Vegan kids at school and bullying

I got some sad news today and it’s not the first time. It turns out that a girl in my daughter’s class says she’s gross because she doesn’t eat meat. This girl regularly makes fun of the food my daughter has in her lunch and it is impacting her enjoyment of it.

I made the kids rice pudding as a treat this week. It should have been well-liked. Rice, sweet soy milk, cinnamon and raisins – I thought it would be a nice surprise even though they’d never had it before. But there was a girl who told my daughter it looked like poo and so my sweetheart sadly told me she didn’t really enjoy it.

This isn’t the first incident of bullying she dealt with at school. She has been singled out for the food she eats – which led to a stage of her asking for sandwiches for lunch everyday so her lunch looked normal.

It’s not shocking, when I come to think of it. I’ve dealt with a lot of teasing and meanness myself at work. I’ve had coworkers try the vegan pizza and then spend every opportunity to tell everyone it was gross. A lot of people just feel the need to comment and most of the time, I don’t think it’s meant in a mean way.

I’m sensitive to the way my kids treat others. We’ve raised our kids not to comment on other people’s food. I choose what is on my plate and it has nothing to do with anyone else.

In fact, when the subject of veganism comes up, it usually isn’t my choice. I’m living according to my own values and I’ve told my story of how and why more times than I’ve wanted to. It’s not a secret, obviously. But there are other things to talk about.

Have your kids had similar experiences? How do you handle it?