Has the Time Come?

It was easy to raise my third child as a vegetarian. I didn't eat meat and when I started him on purees and thicker foods, I just fed him the same foods I was eating. He didn't care. He didn't really have a choice. By now he's two. And he's aware of the food on his plate, and more importantly, the food on everyone else's. He now notices that his pizza doesn't have "roni" like his brother's and that that chicken leg his sister is nibbling on looks interesting. So now I have a problem. Do I force him to be a vegetarian or do I allow him to eat the foods the rest of my family eats? (Disclaimer here, I do my best to guide my older children to non-meat food choices as well.) I know that it's healthier for him to not eat meat, and I'm a little worried about what eating meat will do to his little digestive system that's gone this long plant-based diet (he does eat dairy and eggs though.) I've know all along that he wasn't going to STAY a vegetarian for his entire life, especially since the rest of the family isn't, but I was hoping that he'd make it a little longer than two years. I guess the fact remains that he IS two. He's still to young to make his own choices about food. If you let two year olds choose what they want to eat, the candy industry would explode! As his mother, it's my job to make sure that everything I put on his plate is good for him and he can then choose from those healthy items which he wants to eat and which he doesn't. (Side note here, he rarely chooses to not eat anything!) That said, I think I should also try to relax a little more about his diet. It's not going to hurt him if he eats a "roni" from his brother's pizza, or picks a little chicken meat off his sister's plate. I won't serve him a helping of meatloaf, but if he takes a forkfull off the plate beside him, it's part of his learning experiences. This doesn't mean that I'm not going to keep telling him, "Yuck, meat. Don't eat it." But that doesn't seem to work with dog food so I doubt it will work with a hamburger either.