Raising Vegan Kids

It's been years since anyone really questioned me for raising my children as vegetarians (and now vegans). I still occasionally get the odd comment about making sure they get protein/calcium/whatever nutrient meat-eaters think comes only from animal products. Mostly, though, people acknowledge how healthy my children are and how well they eat. In the early days, when my first child was a baby, it surprised me that people would even ask me if I planned to raise him as a vegetarian. If I'm not raising my child by my values, then whose values should he be living by? My brother (who, strangely, is vegan) thought it was wrong of me to make that choice for my children rather than letting them make it for themselves. It was as if he felt meat-eating was the default and not eating it should be something the kids decided to do for themselves. I think that's messed up. In my world, vegetarianism is the default, and eating meat should be something they're allowed to chose for themselves when they're old enough to understand what it means. My kids are now 7 and 11, and they have both thanked me for never giving them meat. Now they get to chose for themselves whether they eat animal products. Of course they chose not to.