fingers crossed!

[Teejay]

My daughter took her "Veganopoly" board game to school today as they were asked to take board games for a fun session. She is now in Middle School & says they don't tease like they used to in elementary ("more grown up").

Because we moved here from another country, all her other board games are in storage and this was the only one. I talked it through with her beforehand -- we have had so much teasing about her veganism before! -- but she feels pretty confident that someone will play it with her.

No real reason for posting this other than wanting to share a nervous feeling with other parents who might understand! I don't know if any of you have played this game -- it's quite primitively made, cardboard bits, but it's fun, and good for teaching children about vegan food. Instead of buying real estate as in Monopoly, they buy vegan restaurants like "Hummus Hut" and "Kentucky Fried Tempeh" and have to earn stars to improve the restaurant.

[Erin Pavlina]

That's very cool. I'm glad you shared. It's a bummer that the kids were teasing her about being vegan. Can you share with us what that was like, how you handled it, how it affected your daughter, etc? I'm sure we'd all like to know!

[Teejay]

This time it went fine!

All that happened was, the other kids thought she had made the game herself (it's largely cardboard, doesn't have plastic bits like Monopoly). One girl screwed up her nose at the potato chips my child had brought and said, "Are those some sort of weird vegetarian chips?" and my daughter was happy to say, "No, they're just regular chips from the store, lots of chips are vegan..."

In the past, we have tried to encourage her to ignore the teasing and above all, not to be angry (but it's so hard for kids, who have lower boiling points than -- some! -- adults) and to be as calm as possible -- that she doesn't have to explain if she doesn't want to...

The worst was when some children deliberately ate live worms in front of her to see if they could upset her (she just removed herself -- and afterwards the children were in a lot of trouble from the teacher, who actually found out from someone else).

We have never had trouble from the teachers on this -- our experience of schools in Ohio so far has been that teachers and principals are very supportive of difference (whether religious, dietary or whatever -- we do live in a college town though, which is a bit more diverse than the general rural area in which it's located)... it's only been the occasional other kid/s.

I think overall it has taught our daughter to be aware that kids tease about just about anything -- it has taken a while to see this, at first she thought it was only her because she was vegan, but I think now she can see that whatever is different about you will be singled out. Hopefully it makes her a stronger person.

The part I am not looking forward to is cookery class which starts I think in the next quarter...

[Erin Pavlina]

Yeah, I think it's important to point out to our kids that children tease about anything, from wearing glasses to being overweight, to being not as smart as others, etc. Veganism is just another one of those things.

[Blinky]

Sounds like you have raised a very well-adjusted child! I bet you are proud of her. I am looking forward to the day when my son (11 yrs old) is not so self conscious about being vegan. Nobody at school really knows though except his best friend because the lunches I send look like any other cold lunch any other kid would have.