Poll: Finish Your Plate!

[SckizoBoy]

I've always hated seafood. Particular dishes could make me literally gag, but my parents always forced me to eat whatever fish was on my plate. It often ended in tears.

My stereotyped image of Nordic people is ruined!! [http://satwcomic.com/nordics-like-fish]

My parents would whack me until I finished eating.
My older sister and I would spend, I shit you not, hours at the dinner table because our mother would give us really big proportions and expect us to finish it.
Eventually we would give up and make sure our parents weren't watching. We'd then dump it outside or in the obscured garden plant next to the table depending on what the food was.

Damn immigrant parents.

Whoa... my immigrant parents were bad, but not like that... to get me to eat vegetables (hey, I was a six year old brat), my first bowl of rice (hey, again, I'm Chinese) would always come with no meat, finish that, and I could get some protein.

OT: Yes, but my old man had a brain between his ears, so he and my mum would never give us enough to be enough, so we'd invariably get seconds, we just had to finish it all. He'd only bollock us if we were blatantly being gluttonous (after a fashion).

 

[Smeggs]

Until I got old enough to respond to, "There are starving children in Africa who would kill for those peas" with "If they're willing to kiill for peas then why don't they just hunt down one of the millions of antelope in the savannah to feed their village?"

 

[Trucken]

Well, I was a picky eater when I was kid, without a doubt (still am to a certain degree). It happened on many occasions that I would be alone at the dinner table with food still on my plate, not allowed to leave the table until I had finished it. I rarely did though, so it usually ended with me getting scolded and sent to my room.

But I've been wondering if that whole "finish your plate"-deal is still in my head. It doesn't matter if I'm eating at home or at a restaurant, I just can't leave food on the plate. I can be completely stuffed but still force down the remaining food. I've been trying to drop that habit though, telling myself that if I'm full it's OK to throw away the food that's left.

 

[Flamezdudes]

Yep, all the time with my family. Even now at 17, this in in England by the way if you're wondering.

Lately my appetite for food has changed and I find it more difficult to eat as much as I used to... which is strange.

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

I know it well, but my mother never overfed me, because we were poor, but I wasn't a big fan of veggies... so... Yeah, it helped me not eat a diet of pure carbs.

 

[Soviet Steve]

Yep, and it's absolutely retarded. Encourage people to grab small portions is fine but raising people to eat more than they are comfortable with is not going to encourage obesity. >->

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

My mother did, which I think is because of her mother, who was an absolute demon for 'finish your main or you won't get any dessert.' Whenever we went round grandma's house it was always full roasts and gammon with mashed potatoes. Lovely, but she would always insist that everyone finish everything that was on their plate.

It rubbed off on my mother, who always encouraged my sister and I to eat everything.

 

[Rawne1980]

Just in regards to veg.

I either ate my veg or I got the belt buckle to the legs.

I got the belt a lot .... never did like veg.

 

[ElPatron]

Like I ever needed encouragement. When I was near puberty I started inhaling food with my mouth, which actually caused me health problems.

My grandmother does not encourage me to finish because she cooks way more food than we need and saves it for later.

Lately my appetite for food has changed and I find it more difficult to eat as much as I used to... which is strange.

That happens. A year ago I could eat 1 kg of microwave lasagna. I won't dare trying now, my metabolism has changed way too much. I went from 75kg to 68kg in a week and a half a few months ago, and I think it was stress from college.

I have never had any change like this unless I was sick.

Yep, and it's absolutely retarded.

That's like your opinion, man. My brother has looked like an African kid for years. Without encouragement he could have had serious health issues.

 

[iLikeHippos]

That pressure of sweeping your plate clean, regardless of its contains and mass, was always present whenever I visited grandmother.

I was lucky though, seeing as this fashion was not collectively shared throughout the whole family, so I'd be cut some slack at home if there would ever be cod on the table.

Cod incites my gagging reflexes to this very day. It's taste... *shiver*

 

[Dags90]

That's like your opinion, man. My brother has looked like an African kid for years. Without encouragement he could have had serious health issues.

That's like your opinion, man. He also could've have been skinny but fine.

American medical consensus on skinny children is generally to ensure that there isn't parental neglect, and to check for other symptoms. In the absence of neglect or other symptoms it's not considered important. Nine times out of ten, being skinny is a symptom of something else, and throwing more food at someone is the wrong approach.[footnote]http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-08-10/health/sc-fam-0810-child-health-underweight-20100810_1_liquid-calories-fussy-eaters-underweight[/footnote] I went through it myself.

 

[Wyes]

It was certainly encouraged by my parents, and occasionally they'd try to put their foot down to enforce it, but it never really stuck with me. Like some of the others who've posted, I'm an extremely picky eater (and lucky me, I now seem to have some intolerances which let me justify not eating a lot of things, it's just unfortunately I'm also intolerant to some of the few things I do like), so being forced to eat food I didn't like never ended well. I'd usually just get sick. To this day, eating food I don't like in any appreciable quantity still makes me sick.

My girlfriend doesn't understand this at all, being raised in a family where you ate what was on your plate, where they can all cook and are expected to. She and her sister have developed some very strange food neuroses (by their own admission) because of their mother's attitude towards food. She has a 3 month dinner plan, which she buys everything for in advance. That is to say, there's 3 months worth of food in their house at any given time. It's not a bad idea, certainly seems to save money, but it means that they don't feel like they're allowed to just get food out and make it (unless it's things that are 'snacks' and the like).

 

[xplosive59]

I have always liked food so I have never had a problem with finishing my plate unless I felt physically sick, sometimes I finish other peoples plates as well as the rest of my family don't eat much. I do alot of exercise as well though.

 

[WaysideMaze]

We didn't have much money when I was growing up, so I couldn't really eat between meals. We couldn't afford it. As such I always finished every last morsel on my plate.

We're much better off these days, not rich, but no longer struggling, but I'm still in this mentality where I need to finish everything.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

But the idea of making a child eat past when they feel like it seems kind of wrong.

There's where you're coming unstuck, I think. I had the whole 'finish your plate' thing as a kid, but it was never about forcing kids to eat. The logic went like this: if I had genuinely had enough to eat, then fine, I could leave what's left and not have any more. If I was (as kids often do) falsely claiming to be full in order to get past broccoli and carrots so as to leave room for chocolate ice cream then I wasn't really full and should finish my plate. It's not about encouraging unhealthy eating habits - quite the opposite. It's about teaching kids that indulgent foods are a nice treat, but one shouldn't skip healthy food to make room for sugar-laden treats.

At least in my experience anyway.

 

[evilneko]

"Encouraged" would be a mild word for it. And it worked. To this day I cannot leave food on a plate. Even shit I don't like.

It didn't help that some of the stuff my mom presented us with was.. well.... bad.

 

[Smeggs]

But the idea of making a child eat past when they feel like it seems kind of wrong.

There's where you're coming unstuck, I think. I had the whole 'finish your plate' thing as a kid, but it was never about forcing kids to eat. The logic went like this: if I had genuinely had enough to eat, then fine, I could leave what's left and not have any more. If I was (as kids often do) falsely claiming to be full in order to get past broccoli and carrots so as to leave room for chocolate ice cream then I wasn't really full and should finish my plate. It's not about encouraging unhealthy eating habits - quite the opposite. It's about teaching kids that indulgent foods are a nice treat, but one shouldn't skip healthy food to make room for sugar-laden treats.

At least in my experience anyway.

Some of us were actually forced to eat it literally everything on our plate, at least I was.

I once sat at the kitchen table for nearly five hours staring at the second half of my creamed corn, and I liked creamed corn. My parents actually tried to hold my nose closed so I'd have to open my mouth to breathe so they could force-feed it to me, but it's quite easy to breathe through clenched teeth.

 

[Ledan]

Nope. My parents would often tell me to wait until everyone else was done before I could leave, that was when I was really little and just wanted to go back to whatever it was that I had been doing.

 

[bullet_sandw1ch]

no, because what i didnt eat would be a snack for later, so nothing goes to waste. also, about half of the people i know in person are heavy, or even obese [i am heavy, partly because i was more of a computer kid than a sports player] partly because their parents made them finish their plates. some of them ate healthy,but the parents filled their plates to the point they resembled towers. my parents knew this, and didnt want to make me bigger than i was, even though i wasnt huge, so they figured i didnt have to finish if i didnt want any more.