Member-only story
Were You Born a Vegetarian Like Me?
Mealtimes equalled trauma when I was a child
Are you or your child a natural vegetarian?
The motivation for writing the following story came from a young local girl who went out of her way to thank me, for having proclaimed once in her earshot that there are natural-born vegetarians, and that I’m one of them. She said it changed her life.
I believed her, thousands wouldn’t.
My mother put eggs in front of us every single morning, and meat every evening. She’s a great cook, and like many a mother before her she expressed her nurturing through feeding her family. But in our house, you had to eat what was put on your plate before you were allowed to leave the table.
You ate every last morsel and should be thankful. It was a hundred years since my Irish ancestors starved in the Great Famine and emigrated to Australia, but cultural attitudes around food are slow to change.
I was an obedient child, but I just could not swallow meat. I chewed and chewed and chewed.
There was no enjoyment, just increasing misery. The wad of meat in my cheek grew ever larger, tougher and dryer, and swallowing did not arrive. It took me hours to clear my dinner plate.
