FoodBanter.com - View Single Post

On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 17:58:56 GMT,
(S'mee) wrote:

>I was checking out Gloria's Sweet & Sour Cocktail Meatball recipe
>(which sounds excellent, btw; my sibling makes something very similar).
>Anyway, I figured I wouldn't bother to save the recipe because Miguel
>(DH) doesn't like meatballs of any kind. Or white sauce. Or coconut.
>Or most sandwiches. *Sigh*
>
>Now I'm sure at least 10 people are queuing up to tell me I should
>make him eat it anyway, because they certainly wouldn't put up with
>that. But I'm more interested in knowing what kind of fussiness
>the rest of you may have to deal with...
>
>
>--
> Jani in WA (S'mee)
>~ mom, Trollop, novice cook ~

I've read a pile of comments and sympathise with many of the posters.
However, the parents who insist their kids eat what they're given
bring back bad childhood memories.

I was the youngest of seven kids in a poor family. My mother was a
very good, plain cook. My father was a stern parent who was feared.
Mealtimes were agony for me. I would not eat any vegetables and he
forced me to sit there till I'd cleaned up my plate. Meanwhile, my
siblings would have finished their dessert and left the table while my
main was almost intact. I still remember putting cold mashed potatoes
in my mouth and gagging and crying at the same time. I often left the
table hungry, I often missed out on dessert, and I almost never gave
in. I never ate many different types of veges till I became an adult.
Even then, in some ways I'm still a fussy (but adventurous) eater.

When I had kids I was determined not to make their mealtimes the
misery mine were. I did not altogether succeed. Both were fussy and I
used to get so stressed I'd have stomach pains trying to get them to
eat, while trying not being like my father.

When they were about 7, things resolved themselves. I said there was
no room in a family for more than one fussy eater, and that person was
going to be me, as I was the boss of the kitchen. "When you are the
boss of the kitchen you can choose what you eat," I explained. "But
I'm going to let each of you nominate one food you absolutely hate and
I will never make you eat it. Everything else you have to try."

So they did. And that's what I did. My son never had to eat tomatoes.
My daughter never had to eat pumpkin. But I also went lightly on the
food I knew they did not like.

Footnote: When I eat at my children's houses (they are now 24 and 25
years old) they threaten to serve me mashed potatoes and say I'll have
to eat it as they are the boss of the kitchen!

Kathy in NZ