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I know this probably sounds crazy, but lately I've felt guilty about raising our children so strictly vegan. I'm starting to feel that I'm enforcing something that mabye they don't really want in their lives. Will they understand when they get older? - Lindsay

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Dear Lindsay,

First of all, you are not the first vegan mom to feel guilt over raising her children strictly vegan. I've gotten similar comments and questions from many others, so don't feel guilty for feeling guilty.

If I had to guess, I'd say you were worried. Worried that your children will come to a point where they blame you for "making" them vegan, where they might possibly rebel and go off and eat meat, where they feel anger that you made their childhoods difficult and socially awkward due to your raising them vegan.

Wondering if your children will someday resent you for raising them a certain way, with certain rules and values, is something I think every parents wonders. But that's our job, as parents. We decide what we think is right, what we think is best, for our kids and then we do our best to teach them our values. There is nothing wrong with that.

When children get older they all decide for themselves how they will live and there is nothing we can do about it. Nor should we try. We want our children to be independent thinkers. All you can do when they are young is to instill your values in them by example and by action. Someday, sure, they might blame you for making their childhoods difficult, but you never know, they might someday thank you for keeping their bodies as pure as you could, for preventing them from comitting murder, for teaching them the value of compassion, and for the fact that they are fit and trim instead of obese and diseased.

Follow your heart. Do what you think is best. Then, if they blame you later, you can at least say, "I did the best I could with what I knew at the time" and actually mean it. They can't blame you for that.

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