I have always tried to teach my kids to be leaders and not followers. Up until recently I thought this premise had at least gotten through to my 11 year old daughter. She was the type of kid that stood out in the crowd and the other kids followed suit. Did you notice that I used the past tense there?

She came home from school the other day and proudly announced that she was now a vegetarian. Now I have no issue with vegetarianism at all as long as you can give me your reasoning behind it. Whether you are an animal lover or just wanna be a healthier person,  I am all good with that. When I asked her how she has come up with this life altering epiphany, her first response was “I don’t know”. I told her that her reasoning wasn’t good enough for me, to which she responded, “well, my friend is a vegetarian”. All I could do was laugh. This is a girl who always begged for steak, burgers, hot dogs, and chicken. She used to tease her mother relentlessly when she was pregnant and the thought of meat grossed her out. She would tell her mother, ” Well I am a meatatarian, cause I love meat”.

I probably should mention that this was her third time claiming to not eat meat anymore. The other two times I just rolled my eyes and waited for her to break. Without fail it would last a few days and then she would binge on whatever meat we were having for dinner. This time she is pushing a week of no meat and I know that this is not my baby girl. I see her eye balling my burger. She wouldn’t even come out of her room as we all enjoyed the pot roast I made for dinner last night.

Right now I think she is just being stubborn. It may sound juvenile but tonight I literally chased her around the house with burgers and chicken nuggets. I couldn’t help myself. She doesn’t know how to be a true vegetarian. She is not getting the nutrients she needs and she is just trying to be trendy. I want my little leader of the pack back. The one who had all the other girls following her around just to play where she was and to do what she was doing. Where did that kid go? Well, fear not people, I will bring every delectable treat she loves into this house. I will sneak little bits of meat into her soup. I will break this fad, oh yes….I will win!