What do you do if you’re vegan and you have young children who are offered dairy products when visiting their friends’ houses? It’s a difficult dilemma. I know vegans who have brought their children up on a strict animal-free diet, and made sure they always take their own vegan food with them wherever they go. Sometimes the children grow up to accept their plant-based diet without rebellion. Their veganism becomes as important to them as it is to their parents.
But I also knew two youngsters who were so indoctrinated that by the age of nine they could name every E number unsuitable for vegans. (A slight exaggeration, but you know what I mean!). By the time they were 13, they were rebelling and eating meat. You can obviously push too hard sometimes.
There will be plenty of disagreement over this, but my belief is that you have to leave youngsters some leeway to make their own decisions. And probably that should, at the very least, allow them to eat whatever they want when they are out of the house.
The best you can do is to try to give them a healthy diet that they enjoy and hope that they grow up convinced of the reasons behind your choice. But like all parenting decisions, it is very, very difficult to get it right!