Try showing them a video of battery hens- it’s a bit of a last resort, but it could help you get on the same page. Soy milk carries as much calcium as traditional milk, sometimes even more! If you can put together a list of vegan foods and show it to them, it may help them realize that vegan food does exist, and a lot of it has tons of protein.

Show them some factory farming videos. Is dairy the only thing that they have an issue with? (No eggs, or anything?) Also, like montanaman said, dairy has lots of replacements. The literal milk replacements are actually usually cheaper than organic milk, especially if you don’t buy name brand! (No GMO’s) However, all the other products are much harder to find, except fake butter. (I like EarthBalance personally, and the prices aren’t bad) Soy yogurt is not too expensive, but I can only find it at health food stores, and so have to travel a bit to get there :-\ ) basically, unless you live in the vegan capital of the world, those are the main dairy substitutes that you will be able to find, though vegan cheese is out there in many health foods places too. (That is the expensive stuff, I just skip cheese.) if your parents are that worried about your calcium intake, calculate your daily calcium intake as a vegan, and if you actually won’t get enough, I’m sure there are supplements. (However, unless you live off of nothing, I don’t think that that will be much of a problem) Good luck!

Most soy milk actually has MORE calcium than dairy. Pick up Silk, and tell them to compare the calcium to milk. Usually it has 30% more calcium and other vitamins in it. You also wouldn’t be getting hormones that’s usually in milk. Have you showed them the undercover PETA videos of the dairy industry? The Humane Society as well as Compassion Over Killing have undercover videos as well. Also, veganism is cheapest if you know how to cook. I highly suggest picking up “Peta’s Vegan College Cookbook” for cheap and easy recipes. :] There is also an “Accidentally Vegan” list too here:
http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/accidentally-vegan.aspx

And lots of additional advice here that can be helpful:
http://www.peta2.com/lifestyle/

Though it can be expensive, there are soy products that can replace any dairy product, whether you need milk, cheese, sour cream, yogurt etc. Most of these products (mainly the soy milk) actually have more calcium than their dairy counterparts! I personally buy soy milk in bulk at Costco to offset the cost saving me about 50%. If you have any problems with soy their are many other non-dairy milks that offer great nutrition like rice milk, almond milk, coconut milk and others I can’t think of right now. If you have any concerns about eggs, tofu and other meat substitutes do well replacing them in cooking and a bit of flax seed and water makes a great egg substitute for baking. Good luck

Hi. I would really love to be a vegan instead of a vegetarian, but my parents and I don’t see eye to eye. I showed them your article on why dairy products are bad, but they don’t believe it. I also showed them other websites about dairy, but however they find websites that says the baby cows don’t get taken away from their mothers, and these “websites” are dairy industiry websites (how ironic).. How do I get them to believe that dairy products are wrong? Oh, and they are also concerned where I would get calicum, and what I will eat. please help! THANKS:D !!!