My daughter is a vegitarian.

Me and my wife have been on a fitness kick for a few months. We each have a new gym membership and Brandy has been cutting calories by eating only vegetarian. Eating a vegetarian diet is an easy way to cut a lot of calories out of your diet. Brandy was a vegetarian after Egan was born and I was before the navy. When you have to eat lots of beans and rice to replace protein your overall diet is much healthier and your consuming less calories because it takes up a lot more space. It's also a lot cheaper, a useful self-improvement option when your poor.

It makes you more mindful of what you're eating and severely limits your fast food options. It also takes a lot of self control. Every vegetarian (even many of the moral ones) have their weaknesses. Mine was bacon. I think I eat much more bacon now then I would have if I was never a vegetarian; I don't think I would have ever appreciated it as much as I do now. I suppose it could be argued whether that is a good thing or not.

Elysia has now decided to be a vegetarian "for the rest of her life," and I couldn't be prouder. It says a lot for such a young child to make such a decision. Yeah; I doubt it is realistic to assume that this will last too long, but she may surprise me more. This isn't completely self-determined, I'm always in awe of how much children look up to their parents. Elysia has also said proudly that she is going to be a house wife when she grows up just like mommy (another decision that I fully support, but don't doubt she will always maintain).

The way I see it, it is not about whether being vegetarian is good or bad its about decision making skills and self-control. You can bet that I will be teasing her with some bacon in the morning. I hope she doesn't give in, but will be understanding if she does. Self-control and decision making skills are not something that parents normally teach to their children. Instead thinking they are something innate or that only shame and ridicule bring them out. I'm going to play the devil's advocate, while praising her decision making skills. "You don't want to eat any of this yummy bacon? Wow. I'm so proud of you. It's sooo good. " I have so much fun being the bad guy.

One of my favorite parenting quotes is "Prepare the child for the path, not he path for the child." Teach decision making skills. There are many paths in life and people need the skills to be able to decide the right path, it is not innate. Cultural bias tend to convince people that there is only a very limited sets of paths but that's not true. The world is going to be a much crazier place when my children grow up. They will have the ability to choose their fate unlike any generation before. I want my children to be decisive, and I will support them in their decisions and their failures. I will also be there to be the bad guy, to give her just enough crap that she becomes immune to it without giving up. Maybe this will only last a week or two, but its great training for her next major path choice.