All the yta/esh people are missing the real point. He isn’t making his wife eat it, he just wants to be able to feed it to his kids without her being a d**k about it. He said that his kid was happily eating it before her comments:

not only is the husband nta but the wife is an idiot. too many people have an aversion to food that is not common such as wild game. many game meats have a flavor that is different to the more common beef, chicken, or pork. some game, like venison, lacks fat so that has to adjusted. i've eaten goat, venison, ostrich, as well as some insects which, by the way, has much more protein than the common meats. so, yes, she needs to get a job to compensate for the meat she and her one child want to eat.

If you say that putting meat on the table is getting to be a financial struggle and you have the ability to legally hunt deer, go for it. (I love wild game.) Your wife should keep her mouth shut when there are impressionable young eaters nearby if she doesn't want them to pick up an eating disorder. Besides, if you start categorizing one type of animal is being "too cute to eat" then where does this stop? Deer are off the table because there was a movie called Bambi but cows are okay? It's hypocritical. I'll tell you what you can do to stretch your protein budget though. Go to the grocery store...you might have to go to the international section or an East Indian grocery store if you have one, and ask for something called "soy wadi". A great addition to meat to make it stretch further. You boil it, rinse it, squeeze out the extra water, grind it up and use it with ground beef. I usually use 1/3 soy wadi 2/3 meat. Just as much protein, same color, same texture & very inexpensive!

The passive agressive and manipulative attitude is what irks me here... not even the actual issue itself... the fact that this woman is using subterfuge to influence her kids like that is creeping me the F out... Imagine marring someone and finding out they are that kind of person years later... after the kids were had... Scary stuff.

Venison in this country is too expensive - well, I certainly think it's a little deer...

Maybe it comes down to not yucking someone else's yum. You don't have to eat it, and teasing other people for enjoying it is rude.

I've eaten kudu before (it's a type of antelope - we don't have deer here) and it's delicious. I also think kudu are very cute (they are also HUGE). But so are chickens, cows, sheep, even pigs. I still think they're delicious. I mean, the animal is dead and I didn't kill it. If I had to kill my own food I'd be a vegetarian, but for dietary reasons, my doctor said that cutting out red meat wouldn't be a good thing for me. So I buy free range meat wherever possible - and kudu are ALL free range!

I have never understood the mentality that dislikes hunting animals yet have no qualms for the monstrous way animals are farmed today. I'm vegetarian, I simply don't like the taste of meat, nor the farming practices of most commercial operations. I and my husband have hunted in the past - he was a crack shot and didn't shoot at anything he was not sure of killing immediately. I have also had to kill animals for reasons other than hunting. I hated it, even when it was necessary. Which is why I no longer eat meat. But I do respect ethical and humane hunting for meat (not trophies!) But to assume that pigs, or cows, or chickens are somehow immune from suffering because they are 'regular meat? The cognitive disconnect is ridiculous. People in other countries eat dogs, and people get up in arms (as do I, but only because of the cruelty - meat is meat.).

TIL venison is red meat. I never really thought about it. We aren't in a deer hunting area of the US. Also, if the deer was hunted humanely with a proper hunting license then the death of the deer will improve the continuing life of the deer population in the area.

My mind boggles when people who eat meat act like hunting is somehow barbaric. As if factory-farming isn't infinitely more horrific. That deer got to live a natural life with one bad day at the end. But I guess when you buy meat at the grocery store, it's easier to close your eyes and pretend those neat little packages just magically show up on the shelf. Sanitizing death.

The wife is completly in the wrong because she is using the word bambi. The is a cute disney figure for any animal. So next time there is another kind of meat is on the table name it. for example Clarabelle for beef, Piglet for porc and Chicken Little of chicken etc. She can also print some images and show them what they are eating.

Hmm, the expensive, store bought meat that was raised in a tiny space in its own feces, and fattened up to be slaughtered, then went to a commercial butcher to pass through who knows how many hands? Or the organic, free roaming animal that lived a true life, and if processed by the hunter has only touched one hand. Or even a small processor is better than a commercial slaughter house. My daughter loves venison, she knows it's from deer. But if we referred to it as Bambi she'd hate it. Wife is 100% TA for purposefully trying to poison her kids against it.

NTA, the wife is being absurdly immature and doesn't seem well educated about a growing problem. Deer are exploding in population and hunting helps keep those numbers down since there's not many natural predators (also due to humans).

Where i live, venison is a delicacy and quite expensive. I would be all over that dinner.

My dad brought home a deer every winter. He would joke about Bambi and it didn't slow us down in the least - we liked eating. He would also sneak a maraschino cherry into the stew and tell us whoever found Rudolph's nose had to wash all the dishes. We survived. This dude's wife needs to either be a vegetarian or STFU, since apparently his kids don't have the dark humor that my brother and I had as children.

There's cheaper protein than meat.

What he should do in revenge is Mike comment bout Peppa Pig when his wife makes pork dish.

I've always wanted to try venison.....

I love me some nice backstrap. Have since I was a kid. Mom needs to quit sabotaging dad.

The deer lives free and wild until, as it's distracted, a good hunter will cleanly, instantly, painlessly take it. The beef in the markets is mostly from sad cows who can see and sense the next slaughterhouse step.

Invite her to find a recipe she would like to try, with the venison. Cook it together. Eat it and that is great! Let her know she needs to encourage the kids to eat the venison, and to stop calling it bambi. Not cool. But above all work togwther. Kids need to try new things and if they already like it, great! They need to learn to eat what is put on the table fir the family. And eat together. Is she wants more stir bought meat, keep an eye out for meats that go on sale . And buy it then and freeze well. Happy eating!

I am not a big meat eater... many in my family has the same feelings... I not into venison.... and the children doesn't need meat.... but they need to get full. If this is the best way for this father, the mother should be quiet!