Re: Mom needs help w/13-year-old vegetarian

salgud wrote:
I feel sorry for you, Dave. I gather no one took your ideals seriously
when you were that age, and now you won't take anyone else's
seriously. Most likely, you're right, that this young girl is going
through a phase, and it will pass. OTH, she may become a life-long
vegetarian and stick with her beliefs. Who knows at this point? But to
ignore it or tell her it's just a passing phase in her life is to deny
her her own idividualiy and identity and reduces her to the lowest
common denominator in our society. Yet another drone. Those who have
been reduced to drones reproduce more drones, and we end up where we
are today, fighting wars for no apparent reason.


Thanks. I was trying to figure out a way to say much the same thing.
You said it better.


Dave, here's another way to look at it. When children are small, they
often like to play with dolls and stuffed animals. Do we, as parents,
decide not to cater to the doll fad that they'll outgrow? Do we insist
that they spend their free time watching sports on t.v. and having sex
since those are the pastimes they'll probably stick with as adults? Or
do we let them go through their phases precisely because they are
phases? I can think of tons of things I used to be interested in that
I'm not interested in now. I used to think I'd be a ballerina, and my
parents took me to a year of ballet classes. I learned to play the
flute well enough to play in the school band, then dropped it, never
going on to become a world class famous concert soloist. The point
isn't that I didn't stick with these interests. The point is that I got
something out of them and kept with me the idea that harmless
experimentation is allowable and fun. (And some experiments do become lifelong: cooking, quilting, reading, writing, dog training, friendships and other relationships.)


I don't think anyone was suggesting that the parents start cooking separate meals for the 13 year old vegetarian. If they did and I missed it, I hope you'll point me to that post. We were all suggesting different ways that the 13 year old could cook for herself and the family, experiment with new foods, and still get a good nutritious diet. If that's catering to the fad diet, I'm all for it.


--Lia

.

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