Being meat-free during the holidays is always difficult, especially when 99.9% of your family is a bunch of meat-eaters. This is my 6th Thanksgiving since cutting meat out of my diet, so you would think it would get easier right? No. I still have family members that make comments about the fact that I don’t eat meat. Here are 5 things that this vegetarian gets sick of hearing at Thanksgiving dinner.
1. “Oh no! What are you going to eat?!”
I mean… You have mashed potatoes, vegetables, rolls on the table and there’s about 20 different desserts over there on the counter, but I guess I’ll just starve.
Apparently not eating meat correlates to “I can only eat leaves.”
2. *Family member looks into your soul with a mouth full of Turkey and chews it obnoxiously* “MMM, don’t you want a bite?”
Okay, first off, that’s just plain disgusting. Why do you not have any table manners just because there’s a vegetarian sitting next to you? Can we talk about the fact that I never ate Turkey on Thanksgiving for the simple fact that I’ve never liked it. You just look like a jerk.
3. Any time I put something on my plate: “Oh, you can eat that?”
Apparently at every family function I need to reiterate that I don’t live off of just oxygen and have to explain that I just do not consume animals. I didn’t think it was that confusing.
4. When the turkey gets put on the table and everyone looks at you.
It’s as if my whole family thinks that I’m going to have a Kim Kardashian meltdown over their meal.
5. “Did you get enough to eat?”
The only response I can give…:
Duh… and I’m still going to stuff some dessert down my throat.
All jokes aside, I am thankful for my crazy family. Happy Thanksgiving to all my vegetarians, vegans, and meat-eaters!