A dad who has always loved eating meat agreed to raise his daughter on a plant-based diet to keep his vegan wife happy, but for the past year has been sneaking her bits of meat.
The couple apparently conceived after his wife made the switch to a plant-based diet, and so she remains convinced that this change helped things along.
According to this carnivorous man, he was initially worried about raising his child as a vegan, but four years on and she's said to be "thriving", with a healthy appetite to match his own.
Last year, the little girl appeared to be very interested in the burger he was eating and so, thinking it would do her no harm, decided to give her taste.
She very much enjoyed it and, as she didn't have any stomach issues afterward, he decided to give her small pieces of meat from his plate, at times when his wife wasn't there.
Unfortunately, he recently slipped up during a picnic, when he fed her a piece of chicken in front of his wife, "without even thinking about it".
In a letter addressed to Mail Online agony aunt Jane Green, the conflicted dad wrote: "My wife flipped out, started screaming at me that I was 'poisoning' our daughter and that I had no idea how she was going to react to the meat.
"At which point I had to confess that I'd actually been feeding her meat for a while now and that admission sparked another furious argument.
"Now, my wife is threatening divorce and says she doesn't know if she can ever trust me with our daughter again. I understand she's upset that I kept this little secret from her – but I can't help but think she's overreacting?"
In response to his letter, sympathetic Jane revealed she could relate to his wife's concerns having banned her own children from eating sugar "for years".
She went on to state however that she didn't think the letter writer had done anything wrong, and agreed that his wife had overreacted in this instance.
Encouraging the couple to have an "honest conversation" going forward, Jane advised: "Living up to someone else's standards of perfection is exhausting, and unrealistic. It's one thing to have an intention for your daughter to be vegan, but slips, even ones unconsciously (or consciously) perpetrated by you, are bound to happen.
"Far better that you agree, as a family, to have the intention of a vegan diet, with the acknowledgment that your daughter gets to try foods she wants to. Even meat.
"The best food advice I have ever heard is from Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, famously who says: 'Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants'.
Do you have a story to share? Email us at julia.banim@reachplc.com
