A mum who has been raising her daughter as a vegan has been left outraged after her ex-husband took the youngster to McDonald's and fed her chicken nuggets without consulting her mum first.
Posting on Reddit, the mum explained she became vegan herself after moving in with her ex because he also followed a plant-based diet and didn't like having animal products in the house.
When they welcomed their daughter into the world around eight years ago, they also raised her as a vegan and continued to do so even after the pair separated.
However, the mum was left baffled when her daughter began having a "full blown meltdown" after driving past a McDonald's - as she stated she wanted chicken nuggets like she has when she's with her dad.
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In her post, the mum said: "My ex and I were vegan. I became vegan when we moved in together because he was vegan and he didn't like there being animal products in the house. I learned more about the way food was made and I agreed. I was vegan while I was pregnant and we've raised our daughter vegan for the past eight-ish years.
"Yesterday I picked up my daughter from her dad's house - he wanted to keep her late because he and his partner were going to take the kids to a matinee of Frozen. So it's dinner time when I'm getting her.
"As we're driving home, she says she's hungry. I offered her an apple (I should have packed better car snacks for the ride) but she spies the golden arches [of McDonald's] out the window. She has a full. blown. meltdown demanding chicken nuggets.
"We get home and she's blowing snot bubbles because she's so enraged. She howls her way through a bowl of leftover soup. She hates me, I'm a terrible mum, dad would have let her eat chicken nuggets. She wore herself out crying."
The youngster was still upset in the morning, and even asked her mum if she "hated" her for having broken her vegan diet to eat meat.
And while the mum did what she could do to reassure her daughter she wasn't angry with her, she was left seething at her ex-husband, who had fed their daughter chicken nuggets without at least giving her a heads-up.
She added: "She was upset when she woke up this morning asking if I 'hated' her because she ate meat (OBVIOUSLY, obviously, obviously not). I spent the entire drive to school reassuring her that I'm not angry with her but that I was surprised that she wanted them.
"But I AM f***ing p***ed because I wasn't aware our hitherto vegan daughter was now eating meat, and I feel like that's a decision that I should have been informed about. I called him after she went to bed and he told me I was being uptight and he didn't tell me because he knew I'd overreact. [He said] I'm controlling and I don't need to be privy to every single thing he does when our daughter is with him.
"I'm f***ing MAD. There are vegan options at McDonald's - he didn't have to feed her chicken, but since he did, I would have appreciated a heads-up."
The mum also insisted she's perfectly happy for her daughter to choose to ditch her vegan diet, but just would have liked to have been "made aware" beforehand.
Commenters on the Reddit post were largely on the mum's side, as they insisted that while her daughter should be able to choose what she wants to eat, her ex-husband should also have communicated the youngster's meat-eating habits to her ahead of time.
One person said: "Regardless of my opinion on forcing a child to have a vegan diet, it’s not okay for parents to not cooperate when parenting a child. This should have been a discussion, at the very least."
As another added: "You'd both agreed to raise your child vegan, such a big change in how they're being raised should be discussed beforehand."
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