My (40M) wife (40F) has suddenly become vegetarian after watching a video about how animals are exploited when brought to slaughter. Neither of us had ever been vegetarian, and we rarely ate vegetarian meals. Our family scenario is that I work full-time while she stays at home to cook, clean, pick up the kids from school, and so on. This has always been nice, and she is an excellent homemaker. I never forced her to be a housewife; this was her choice from the outset.

However, now that she is vegetarian, she refuses to cook any meat-based dishes for me or our two children (10 and 12). She has been a decent cook, but she doesn’t know how to prepare many vegetarian meals yet. And, naturally, I’m craving meat. She INSISTS that I never eat meat again, and she also insists that our children do the same. We debated about it, but I eventually gave in and said I’d try, but no promises.

My children basically refuse, but because they aren’t quite old enough to prepare for themselves, they have to eat whatever my wife packs them for lunch and dinner. To be clear, she explicitly begged me not to eat meat ever again, and I agreed to try. Here’s the issue: My wife attends dance classes every Monday night, therefore I am responsible for feeding and entertaining the kids. After a month of not eating meat, my children begged me to make them some non-vegetarian meals. So. I

I made them agree not to tell my wife, and I will take them to a restaurant they choose. We went out, and my children ate fish and chips. I left the receipt in the car, and my wife discovered it a week later. My wife was furious with me, accusing me of going behind her back and contradicting her in front of the kids. I explained that I crave meat, as do the kids, and that it is unfair to put her choices on us.

Anyway, my wife will not move from her position that no one in our family is permitted to consume meat, and I will not budge from my belief that I, and the children, should be permitted to consume meat when she is not around. I’m not asking her to cook non-vegetarian dishes; I’m arguing that I (and the kids) should be permitted to eat whatever we want.