A long time goal of mine has been to be non-judgmental of other parents and parenting techniques, and I dare say I have made reasonable progress in this area. The most common example is the child throwing a tantrum in a supermarket or mall, which of course is a whole lot easier to not judge once it has happened to you ;). In many other situations, I try to ask questions in my head such as "What are the challenges the parent might be facing" rather than quickly forming a judgement. I have always maintained though, that when someone's parenting affects my child in some way, I find it tough to not question it :P.
Conversation between me and S this morning:
S: Does eating non-veg make your mouth smell bad?
Me: (A bit shocked at first but realizing there must be more to this) Not at all! As long as you rinse your mouth properly, and brush well when you're supposed to, your mouth would smell just fine. Why do you ask me though?
S: My friends at school keep telling me and A (the only other non-veggie) that our mouths would smell bad because we eat non-veg. They are all vegetarians no (in a very wise aside), that's why.
Me: Repeating the above answer with emphasis, and hoping he'll stand up for himself more strongly the next time. Also couldn't resist mentioning that a vegetarian's mouth could smell worse if he doesn't follow basic hygiene.
In my understanding, a child would not make a statement like that unless he has heard something similar from other adults or his own parents. If not the exact same words, definitely that eating non-veg is dirty etc. As someone who was born a veggie, this is a weird situation for me to be faced with because I do understand where they are coming from. It was probably because of the way the subject was treated in my household (I knew it was not traditional, but not a crime either) that I could adapt to different food choices as I grew older.
On a larger scale though, I wonder if it's not possible to bring up children to be sensitive to the choices of others, however different and unexpected they might be. Whenever I get a chance to put across something like this in a conversation with my kids, I try to ensure this. Do you?
Conversation between me and S this morning:
S: Does eating non-veg make your mouth smell bad?
Me: (A bit shocked at first but realizing there must be more to this) Not at all! As long as you rinse your mouth properly, and brush well when you're supposed to, your mouth would smell just fine. Why do you ask me though?
S: My friends at school keep telling me and A (the only other non-veggie) that our mouths would smell bad because we eat non-veg. They are all vegetarians no (in a very wise aside), that's why.
Me: Repeating the above answer with emphasis, and hoping he'll stand up for himself more strongly the next time. Also couldn't resist mentioning that a vegetarian's mouth could smell worse if he doesn't follow basic hygiene.
In my understanding, a child would not make a statement like that unless he has heard something similar from other adults or his own parents. If not the exact same words, definitely that eating non-veg is dirty etc. As someone who was born a veggie, this is a weird situation for me to be faced with because I do understand where they are coming from. It was probably because of the way the subject was treated in my household (I knew it was not traditional, but not a crime either) that I could adapt to different food choices as I grew older.
On a larger scale though, I wonder if it's not possible to bring up children to be sensitive to the choices of others, however different and unexpected they might be. Whenever I get a chance to put across something like this in a conversation with my kids, I try to ensure this. Do you?
