At first I think my parents were worried about me being healthy, and then they were worried I would want them to change. The health part made me very interested in nutrition so I read (and still do) everything I could get my hands on about nutrition. (The Physicans Committee for Responsible Medicine has a great website for vegetarian health facts.)

As far as wanting my parents to change to a vegetarian diet...of course I did! But things did not work out when I was pushing things on them, or telling them how disgusting meat is, or how animals are treated, etc. It especially upset them while they were eating. I grew to understand this and respect it. The less I was out to change them and the more I was at peace with being veg myself the more interested they were in being veg. I highly recommend Gail Davis' book Living Among Meat Eaters.

You can still be respectful of your parents and make your own choices. If it is a hard thing for your parents to discuss, maybe you could give them some literature or a book on vegetarianism that they can read on their own. The more information you have about the aspects of vegetarianism that made you change your own eating habits the more understanding they should be.

Something else that makes it tough for a non-veg parent of a vegetarian is cooking. They may not know what to cook for you, and that is a little frustrating and scary. Find some veg cookbooks at your library and bring them home and help out with the cooking. I've found even the most adamant meat-eaters melt over a fun cooking session together.