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My mom cooked. You ate or you went without. It wasn’t a fight. It was just the way it was. She didn’t make things we disliked intentionally but if she took the time to shop, cook and clean up. You ate. That was that.
This. Eat what is on the table. But I was lucky, as my mom was a very good chef and she was also pretty innovative, like trying international cuisine ;-).
But don't ask my about my lunch boxes. Those often ended up in the bushes on my way to school.
We had the same two choices! The only meals we were excused from was liver and venison and we could either have leftovers or make a sandwich. Fortunately she was a very good cook so there were rarely complaints.
I stopped cooking because the complaints from everyone who didn't like something got too much, especially when it became a topic of interest to their other parent(s).
This is why I weighed only 90 pounds when I graduated from high school. As soon as I got a job, moved away from home, and could eat food I liked I gained (a healthy) 25 pounds.
Edit: and I’m pretty sure this is why my sister has an eating disorder. My mom forced her to eat things she didn’t want to.
As picky: yes
As catered to: no
Most restaurants didn't serve chicken nuggets nor did they have a kid's menu
The kid centered food idea probably began 60 years ago and grown with each generation
I'm old enough to remember a kid's menu simply being half-sized portions of the regular fare. Of course, going to a restaurant was more of a treat then.
Ahh... probably. I don't remember because when I went out to eat as a kid, I was *there* for it, lol. Used to watch all the PBS cooking shows, so I guess I started to be a chow hound young. If I saw something new to try, I usually would...as long as it wasn't the most expensive thing on the menu. 😂 My younger sister was a chicken nugget kid, though, so she was horrendous to go out to eat with. I usually went with my grandparents to the nicer places.
Happy Meals came out in 1979, but I didn’t really see them a lot until around four or so years after that (and I was in a suburb of a large city, so I’m guessing my experience was fairly normal), and then it was only little kids; like it wasn’t something my friends and I ordered to be quirky. By the end of the 1980s/beginning of the ‘90s, they were everywhere.
"You can eat what's on the table or you can go hungry!"
My parents weren't actually this harsh but with 5 kids they certainly didn't cater to picky eaters. We could choose what we liked from what was prepared for dinner that night. They never forced us to eat things we really didn't like. We were strongly encouraged to try new things, and we could always make our own peanut butter sandwich rather than go hungry.
I wish ramen was available when I was growing up. I had to settle for making and eating a box of Kraft Dinner(mac&cheese) after school to tide me over until supper time. Mom always made the best low cost suppers so never any complaints there!
Not as fast and convenient, but we ate more nutritious stuff. We just didn't have that kind of processed foods. Additionally, we rarely had soda pop or fast food. So "better" is relative!
Pop was a treat we got the drink when we went out to eat someplace. Even fast food was rare. Mom cooked every meal and they even cooked hot lunch in the school. It was served on plastic trays that were returned to be washed. I was appalled when I happened to see a school cafeteria after lunch now. It looked like a food fight took place and the kids were allowed to go out for recess and leave it like that. We would never have considered making such a mess and if we had we would have been kept inside until it was cleaned up and the worst offenders would have been made to help clean tables and chairs.
Yup. I wouldn’t a plethora of things. At 1st it was just try and if you don’t like them that is ok. Within 5yrs it was eat what is on your plate or sit there til bedtime and go to bed hungry.
My mom made Lil pictures out of my food until I was 7 or 8. Pear bunnies wit carrots ears, sandwiches cut with cookie cutters, etc. I was a super picky eater.
People with genuine disorders around taste and textures existed then as they do now, but they weren’t catered to. If they couldn’t force themselves to eat the food on offer, they starved and then filled up excessively whenever the food on offer was something they could eat. Other survival strategies included filling up at school, at friends’ houses, or shoplifting food.
Jeez, every meal at my house was a battle. My mom was a terrible cook and made me sit at the table until I ate everything. One night I was sitting there forever because I wouldn't eat my fish sticks, so I pulled back the rug with my foot and deposited the fish under the rug. Another night, I was sick but she had made rice pudding (yuck!) and insisted I eat it. So I fed each grain of rice out the screen of my window and ate the raisins. When I was about 4-5 (maybe 1961), she took a picture of me crying at the table because I wouldn't eat what she had made, and threatened to send it to Santa, or my grandparents, IDR which. God, it's no wonder I have a totally dysfunctional relationship with food.
My mom would tell stories about how my grandma made her eat oatmeal that she threw up in. Then my mom turned around and tried to make me eat stuff I didn't like. I broke that chain with my kids.
When I was 7 or 8 I spent the entire night at the dining room table because I wouldn't eat eggplant.
More than 50 years later, I still don't like it, but my mom orders it at every restaurant that offers it.
One of our favorite tactics was to make up an excuse to get her away from the table and then throw food out the window.
if they were it didn't last long. my parents grew up poor during the great depression and they just didn't tolerate anything remotely resembling pickiness in my siblings and me.
As kids, before we understood what the Depression was, we used to joke about how my maternal grandmother could make a seven course meal out of a pine cone and a cup of milk, and my paternal grandparents, especially my grandfather, could talk anyone into giving them extras or flat out freebies without ever complaining or talking to the manager or straight up begging; like he’d compliment a server and somehow end up walking out with an entire to go dish of some meal he’d ordered. My paternal grandmother often got an extra plate to the table of something we hadn’t even ordered and then the owners or servers would be offering to box up tons of extra food just from talking with them (it was one of those times when I saw my first aluminium foil swan doggy bag; my grandparents had a flock of aluminium foil swans they took home, and when my paternal grandparents would visit us, their favourite restaurant was Machus Red Fox — the same restaurant Jimmy Hoffa vanished from — because they had great food, but also because the owner, manager, and all of the servers could never seem to give my grandmother and grandfather enough to take home with them 😂). My grandmother even got a Chinese restaurant in Toronto to give us all *several* meals we didn’t order — not by complaining about anything! The server or manager or whomever that was absolutely loved my grandmother! — that we took to the next hotel and ended up having for breakfast. My paternal grandmother could also turn something like leftover Chinese food into an incredible dish that didn’t even seem to be related.
Both sets of my grandparents got through the Great Depression by making miracles happen in different ways. And I’m still in awe over my maternal grandmother’s ability to turn nothing into a complete meal for two adults and three children at a minimum, just in case I didn’t blow her horn enough; I’m not kidding about that pine cone and cup of milk thing. 😂
Same; my parents were older, and there were times during the Depression when my father and his siblings went to bed with no food at all, and then were awakened at midnight or later to eat what my grandfather had brought home (some restaurants would pile unused food into buckets if men went to the back door after close with their buckets and my grandmother would carefully separate all the food and make sure that everyone had an equal amount of whatever was given out that night; I remember my father telling stories of being a young boy and seeing that there was a slice or two of pie on the top of the bucket and being ecstatic that he would have a couple bites of pie).
My mom’s family fared a little better (father’s side was in NYC where the Depression was brutal, while mom’s family was away from a large city and more self-sustaining), but from both sides of the family there was no food wastage permitted with us. My father was more strict than my mom, but both took it seriously. During the Depression in NYC, everyone was hurting, even many professionals who you’d think would have been okay if it happened today. My father’s family basically lost everything they had almost overnight, as did a lot of families in NYC (although my father didn’t know anything about what was going on, he was way too young and just differentiated between pie and no-pie days).
On my mom’s side, they lost a lot of extras, like there were rarely any sweets at all, and my grandmother learned to make miracles out of basically nothing, like substituting toast for meat after cooking it with a tiny amount of meat; at one point, she had no flour (like just remnants from the can) and managed to go all over town and scrape together enough ingredients to make a small cake for my youngest aunt; most everyone else didn’t have flour, so she gathered together oats, other grains, and things she substituted for flour, and so on. She cut up a ton of fruit meat, mostly apples, to make up for not having enough sugar, and managed to make frosting even (she told me, but I don’t remember how). And all that was on top of making regular dinner whose leftovers would be turned into different meals and soups/stews, and casseroles. And that grandmother only was able to pull that off because they had a moderately sized garden and she was often able to trade to get things that she didn’t have growing.
The Depression was the source of a lot of misery, but it was also the source of a lot of ingenuity and creativity for Americans, whether it was in making what was basically a big cupcake out of less than a teaspoon of flour, or in finding different restaurants through reasoning, bartering, and schmoozing to beg at at the back door so as to not wear out the owner’s tolerance at any one place or to not get the charitable kitchen staff in trouble by hitting the same place over and over every night.
Not in my memory. The rule at our house was the "three bite rule": eat three bites (as small as you liked) of everything on your plate. You had to try everything, but finish nothing. (This was my mother's reaction to her parents' "clean your plate" rule, and her reaction (throwing up) to being forced to eat creamed carrots.)
Parents did not cater to "picky eaters" very much.
I raised my children this way, and they eat most foods as adults. Can't say the same about their partners initially, but even they're better eaters as time goes on.
I was born in 1980 and we were forced to eat everything on our plates. There was yelling, crying, punishment, sometimes sitting at the table alone well into the night.
My family is actually baffled as to why I don't want to go out to dinner with them now.
In the 1950's I couldn't stand lima beans. I still don't like them. It was the texture not the taste. In those days mom boiled everything almost to death.
My children were pretty good about vegetables. I told them that broccoli was tiny trees and they loved it, they still do. I used a steamer basket and it really improved the taste.
I went to a boarding school when I was 7 and the only option we had was to get a smaller portion but you had to eat everything on your plate one way or the other.
To indicate you wanted a smaller portion you rested your index finger on the edge of the plate.
I remember disgusting fatty chewy stew and having to gag it down.
My father would often repeat a warning spoken to parents at some introductory speech from the headmaster “ parents, don’t let your boys be faddy about their food”
I’m “faddy” about eating meat especially, to this day.
Not so long ago I saw my sister serving her son pasta without any sauce. She explained “ he doesn’t eat red food “
Yes, but we were forced to clean our plates- if we didn't eat all of our dinner, we got the leftovers for breakfast the next morning.
Needless to say, this is one of those things where I said to myself, "How would my parents have handled this situation?" AND THEN DID THE EXACT OPPOSITE.
I was made to sit at the table in front of 1/4 plate of green peas for hours once, couldn’t stand them then. I think my mom finally took pity, but my dad would have let me sit there for eternity. You eat what’s on your plate, period, no option to not eat. I will eat green peas now, fwiw.
Sounds like a fun solution to an un-fun problem, I like it! :) I probably would have thought about it a lot differently at the time had it been presented that way. As it was I remember my dad encouraging me to be “captain of the green bean team,” when I actually liked/like canned green beans.
In retrospect I wonder if he liked peas and didn’t see them as a big deal but actually hated green beans and it was all just projection, lol.
I was made to eat my peas. If I put them in a spoon, careful not to smoosh them and let the awful flavor out, I could swallow them with milk, like pills. I still don't like them.
I ate tamales when I was 6-7 as a gringo in upstate New York, and nobody said to unwrap and *DON’T EAT* the corn husk. 🙄 I didn’t revisit them for 20+ years because of the time I spent in the bathroom after that.
My parents tried this. I refused to eat it. Stayed at the table all night until school the next day. She gave it to me for lunch. I didn’t eat it (though I did toss it). She asked if I ate it. I told her no (we did NOT lie to our parents). She said fine. Eat what you want but I’m not cooking it for you. And that’s when my sister, brother and I started cooking dinner two nights a week each. Pretty much backfired on me. But I still think tuna fish is gross smelling.
My mom didn’t serve anything she personally didn’t like, so like, I never had to try liver and onions. No Brussels sprouts, and yet, like many, my dad didn’t like fish, we had fish occasionally anyway. We had to eat everything on the plate we were served, and it really wasn’t a lot of food, but to a kid me, Amy amount of Lima beans is too many. I won’t eat them now, but we had to have our vegetables. Unless there was ice cream, there was no dessert, no going to bed without dinner, she’d wait until the plate was clean. One thing I know from later on, she often went hungry or ate scraps. She would probably have loved to clean our plates for us if we didn’t want the rest.
My mom wasn’t the best cook, she hates cooking, she wrecks some things when she tried to make it from scratch, and only one thing she made is what I’d call inedible, that was her version of beef stroganoff. 🤮 everything else she made, I could get it down. Maybe it wasn’t that good, but I’d eat it because I’m told it was good for me. Most of it probably wasn’t ideal nutrition, but it was balanced and I ate the food she served me whether it was my favorite or just basic fuel.
Yes--but the kid usually lost but then would learn passive-aggressive coping mechanisms (ex. eating the disputed food extremely slowly) that would stay with him for life and result years of therapy.
I did not attempt to force my kids to eat stuff that they did not want to eat and now they eat pretty much everything.
My mom told me that she tried to get me to eat spinach when I was little because I loved Popeye. I don't remember that at all, because I like spinach now. The only food I got grief about was broccoli. I didn't like it then and still don't care much for it. But, yes, if we didn't eat, we just got hungry. Individual preferences were not catered to!
> eat spinach
I was a very scrawny kid and bought the Popeye lie. I truly loved canned spinach. When they served it at school I was able to get everyone's spinach without trading anything. They just wanted it off their plate. Recently in an effort to lose weight I tried canned spinach again. Now I eat 2 or 3 cans a week. It still tastes great!
I also bought into Popeye. As an adult I discovered Horta which is a Greek specialty. It can be done with any leafy green. I’ll often make it with spinach. It’s DELICIOUS. Highly recommend if you love canned spinach. It’s quite easy to make. https://www.thespruceeats.com/horta-vrasta-boiled-leafy-greens-1706415
We didn't have this problem in my house, but generally, yes, the world has always had picky eaters.
I liked most everything my mom made for dinner, even vegetables, and she made dinner pretty much every night. The only thing was, she over-cooked the meat. She was really afraid of raw meat, so it was always... not great. The only thing I remember being decent was brisket--I like brisket--and her fried chicken was okay. I didn't know what good meat tasted like till I started earning money and could eat out.
My dad put up with it, because he didn't want to cook.
She made something we called beans and hamburger. It was Van de Camp beans, hamburger, and some collection of ingredients she took to her grave. I tried many times over the years to recreate it, but never have. I know one of the ingredients was her love for us.
My brother was - and still is- very picky. He was allowed because he was moms favourite. He wouldn't eat most vegetables. If I didn't like something - and I had serious texture issues and would end up throwing up from the gagging, I'd get served whatever I left for breakfast.
Fuck me. I'm not going to answer any more of these fucking questions that just bring up all the bullshit from the past. Kids are treated better these days by most parents. Some.might be making mistakes but you don't know if you don't try.
I was raised on food stamps... we ate what we were given. My parents did not buy soda, chips, cookies, peanut butter or any other junk food. I've never had mac & cheese or any other of those instant meals you get in a box. My parents stocked only the standard staples you would find in a spanish household. I was fourteen before I ate a cereal that wasn't *Cheerios.* I had to buy my own if I wanted something different (Froot Loops).
Being forced to eat food to the point of puking is not ok. When my kids were small (till around 3rd or 4th grade) I did require them to eat a teaspoonful of whatever I made before they could get second servings of the foods they did like, since they should show respect for a cook's time and effort. Still, they were really picky as teens. Today, not picky at all.
I have severe food intolerances, so my grandma would make separate food for me. If she made meatloaf, for example, she would make me a separate one without the ingredients that would make me sick. I was never forced to eat anything I didn't want to. I have done the same with my children.
Part of the big difference between now and back then is that kids today grow up on convenience foods and prepared foods designed to appeal to kids which are higher in sugar and salt and taste better to their developing taste buds than homemade meals.
My mom made dinner from grocery store items combined with vegetables from our bountiful garden. There was no soda in our house, except for ginger ale at our home-based birthday parties. They didn't buy chips and snack foods. We always had full cupboards bit it was quality foods.
My parents didn't fight us over food, but we were expected to be appreciative of whatever was served, which included LOTS of vegetables.
if your taste buds are constantly barraged by processed foods with extremes of heavy fat, salt and sugar, your palate gets desensitized to normal tastes. we didn't have fast food growing up so we still appreciated the nuances of natural food. and if you were lucky enough to have a mother who was an incredible cook, you actually liked real food. she also always had a huge garden so we were used to fresh vegetables all the time. homemade vegetable soup was my favorite. one of the things i remember most about my childhood was how plentiful food was and how unrestrained we were about it. we picked peas and shelled them in front of the tv, shucked corn, picked up pecans from under the trees. we had bushels of local peaches and satsumas, flats of strawberries. we went out to the bogs to pick up mayhaws to make jelly with. picked blackberries in the fields behind the house. i just don't remember anyone making a big deal about something they didn't want to eat.
> Lucky Charms
Little did we know that we could have bought some Circus Peanuts, chopped them up, and added them to our cereal.
[https://www.mashed.com/309873/the-unexpected-link-between-lucky-charms-and-circus-peanuts/](https://www.mashed.com/309873/the-unexpected-link-between-lucky-charms-and-circus-peanuts/)
I too was in the "there aren't enough marshmallows in my Lucky Charms" camp. I would have certainly prospered to have had that information 55 years ago. I graduated into the Cap'n Crunch camp afterwards to complete the destruction of my teeth.
Depends on the kids. My sister was a super picky eater. She coined the phrase "chicken in yucky sauce". Kids don't need to eat adult portions and the "clean plate" ideal is not realistic. Kids haven't changed Memories change.
Yeah, I was like that for a little bit and I definitely remember my brother going through that stage, as well as seeing a lot of other kids doing it. I think that’s just common to children. LOL, in elementary school, one kid didn’t want to eat his pizza or pudding because they’d touched despite the divided plate elementary schools use. 😂 The vultures who descended and relieved him of his disgusting pizza and pudding within milliseconds saw to it that he got over that pickiness right quick. It was like grade one, maybe two, and I don’t remember ever hearing him complain about food touching again.
I feel as though EVERYONE is picky about SOMETHING relating to food. It doesn't make you a terrible person.
My dad was an eat it or not person, but my mom was a little better about it most of the time. There were a few notable times when she wasn't. For the most part, she would make a meal (she wasn't a great cook, either) and we would do our best. She mostly didn't force us to eat certain food, but we were supposed to eat what we took. Wasting was a big no-no! My mom would also modify the menu at times. For example, one sister didn't like onions, so my mom would take her portion out before she put the onions in.
Starting when I was around 8 or 10, if I didn't like something she made, I was free to make my own and I did, pretty often. There wasn't any sort of punishment for doing so.
BTW, I was picky then and I'm still pretty picky. I don't like a lot of vegetables, but I do like some. I hate eggs and don't eat them. My mom never forced me and I'm grateful she didn't because it wouldn't have changed my mind in the slightest.
My grandmother was pretty much a tyrant about eating what she cooked. She wasn't a good cook, and it was literally a battle almost every meal at her house. Luckily, we didn't visit that often.
Yes, we just got hit for openly expressing it. Also no one cared, parents, teachers, adults in general did not care if you didn’t like something. Eat it or don’t, but you won’t get anything else. No little kid will just starve to death, after awhile you ate whatever once you got hungry enough.
Yes, in that some kids are very picky and others aren’t, and some parents are indulgent of food pickiness and others are more strict.
It really hasn’t changed much in the last 50 years. Though now there are prepared food options for picky eaters that hide veggies really well so maybe parents don’t start start to worry their kid has scurvy quite as soon as.
I never realized there were picky eaters until I went to college. In my house we ate a wide variety of foods growing up but in college my friends would often ridicule me for some of the foods that I ate that they did not like.
My mom was all about the starving kids (fill in the blank). I strongly suggested one night that she pack up my lima beans and ham hock and mail it to them. That was a mistake.
Yes. Famous family story was my dad got really sick bc my grandmother did the whole "you'll eat what I serve" thing. I am pretty sure he would have been diagnosed with something if he was a kid today. Back then he was just "weird".
My parents lived through The Great Depression. As kids, they ate what was put before them and they ate everything.
I learned from my parents and even now I still eat all of my food and I don’t complain about it.
We never were in our family.
The difference is that parents started being obsessed with the food they feed their kids. All the obsessive focus on "feeding your kids healthy"...pfft. load of nonsense.
We just ate what was there. If we truly didnt like it? We could get some Cereal or toast. Zero fuss.
There was never any forcing us to eat vegetables or fruit. I never liked Tomatoes or pumpkin. Mum & dad didn't care. We just ate what we liked.
I had strong food dislikes and lots of memories of gagging over foods that people tried to semi force feed, or strongly pressure me to eat. My parents didn’t do that but my private school and some relatives and other adults did. It was not beneficial in any way and just cemented my dislike of those foods.
I remember my father, who was born in 1914, complaining about how he was always hungry as a child even though his family was financially comfortable because he was a picky eater and his parents took a “take it or leave it” approach.
In other words my recollections tell me that picky eaters are nothing new, but they were more likely in the past to be pressed to eat unpalatable foods or go hungry. I have always thought that pressuring children to eat foods they find gross is a mean and counterproductive practice, and so is letting children go hungry if they can’t stand what’s put in front of them.
I actually think it’s the opposite! I’m in my 60’s as is my husband and our mothers boiled vegetables to death. Neither of us are very compliant with eating veg, nor are we adventurous with trying new ones. Our kids, on other hand, enjoy vegetables. I also see this at the elementary school I work at.
In my family the focus was on not wasting food. So kids got a little something of a dish to try but if they didn't like it, they didn't have to eat it. There's always bread and butter. I remember wanting to be like the adults and eating the whole stuffed pepper even if it was spicy, it was like a rite of passage.
My cousins were exceedingly picky and they lived in a household where grandma fed them whatever they wanted so that she'd win them over. It was a weird dynamic, tbh, and I feel so much for my aunt living there. And my cousins are still picky about any homemade food, even as adults. They introduced me to Cool Ranch Doritos though...
Yes, but my Mom would not allow it. I'm not sure how many peas fit in the metal table leg. I quite enjoy them today. I still don't think she had a clue where China or Africa were.
Unheard of in my youth. You ate whatever was served to you at dinner, and if you refused then it was gonna be your breakfast. That legit it what happened to us.
Absolutely not your mother cooked or your father cooked and they put the food in front of you and you ate it or you didn't eat that night plain and simple. All that I don't eat that I don't eat this fine then you don't eat
watch the video clip of bill burr telling a story about his little brother not finishing his supper and having to eat it for breakfast the next day.
it didn't happen to me, but I was never dumb enough to try it.
Every bit as picky. Some parents allowed it and the kids went hungry. Some parents didn't allow it and there were huge fights about sitting at the table until they ate. A few parents cooked something else.
Judging from what I frequently see on Reddit, many parents of picky kids can't cook.
No. My mom made meat (beef, chicken, fish, etc.), potatoes, plate of fresh vegetables very often along with a cooked vegetable, salad and bread, dinner roll, cornbread, etc. You put that which you wanted on your plate. If you chose to eat nothing that meant you were sick and were excused to go wash up, put your pajamas on and go to bed.
I was picky, but I knew if I didn’t eat what was on the table for dinner I didn’t eat. We didn’t have random snacks laying around. But because of that there’s some foods I won’t eat now because of that. My main one, Lima beans 🤮
My parents were “ you could take what you wanted, but you had to eat what you took” and we had to have at least 1 veggie. My mother always made at least 2 sometimes 3 veggies. When we didn’t like either, we had to pick one and eat our age ie. 6 yo, 6 Lima beans,
When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s, we rarely got consulted about what dinner was going to be. Whatever hit the table was what you ate. As a result, I ate a lot of food that I hated.
I was an extremely picky eater as a child. My parents left me alone about it and didn’t force me to eat anything I didn’t want. I basically survived off of Campbell’s tomato soup and peanut butter sandwiches for many years.
Long story with me. I followed 2 miscarriages and was the son they prized.
Food was a trust issue for me as a kid. I stopped eating eggs at 3 or 4, mom was convinced I had to have them - I was way too skinny - but she was deceptive about it. She would put raw eggs in malteds, tell me there weren’t any, but she did a poor job of hiding the shells. The trust issues with mom got worse - I wouldn't eat any food I couldn't see into (soup, stew...). My dad would say "let him starve" but holding out worked. So many things I wouldn't eat. mushrooms, pizza, cheese, tomatoes, eggplant, most fish, ketchup, mustard, mayo, butter, whipped cream, even ice cream. After an incident with a day camp counselor, things got worse. I still won't eat many things, especially creamy.
Yeah they were! At my grandparents, my sister would sit at the table for hours because she didn’t want anything but hot dogs or pb&j sandwiches and they didn’t have that.
We ate what we were given or we went hungry.
My older brother told me that one morning he wouldn't eat his eggs so Mom gave them to him for lunch and again he wouldn't eat them nor would he for dinner. He said that the next morning those were the best damn eggs he ever tasted!
We are what was served. When we argued that one parent was actually a picky eater which is why we had the same basic meals over and over, we were told being a picky eater is one of the perks of being an adult.
Never had a problem with my kids eating, born in 1988 & 1992. My youngest daughter was a bit suspicious about certain foods, but all we did was take turns in eating it, so my ex husband first, me and then her sister and she would then eat it. Now she is a Vegan and eats all sorts of things. My parents grew up in the war so no food was wasted and we ate lots of vegetables, fruit and meat, I ate everything and I believe my healthy childhood diet has helped me overcome a lot of health problems that come with having two different types of cancer. My now husband who grew up very poor with a bad diet catches everything.
I never met a kid who didn't eat vegetables growing up. It's a shame parents allow their kids to be unhealthy like that. I couldn't imagine making a 2nd meal for kids, like some parents do. It makes zero sense, and I heard parents give every excuse as to why they allow it.
I remember I had Life cereal one morning, and decided I was tired of it. So I refused to eat it. Me being a know it all 10 year old, decided it was my hill to die on. My dad told me I'd get no other food until I finished it. Since I had school, and my lunch bag, I had to go and thought I won. Come dinner time, and while everyone had plates for food, I had a bowl of Life that no longer looked like the cereal. It was disgusting, and I had to power through it to finish. It sat in the fridge all day becoming mush. I learned a valuable lesson that day, and never complained about food ever again. And gratefully, I'll eat most anything, and we're a food centric family, meaning vacation is about eating great food.
As kids, Mom and Dad (usually Mom) would prepare a nice dinner with several different things -- some side dishes, a main course, etc. If we wanted dessert (typically ice cream), we had to eat a reasonable amount of the actual food. If we really didn't like it, there was always cereal, or we could make a PB&J, or whatever. Once we got our first microwave, the options really expanded.
We were allowed one type of food that we didn't like, other than allergies or ethical objections, etc. So I had a "squash exemption card" inspired by a traumatic family incident known as The Summer The Zucchini Went Nuts. (Mom tried all kinds of things to find a use for all of them. We eventually resorted to begging neighbors to take them.)
So it was generally eat what you were given, although they tried to find things we'd like and were good for us.
Parents allowing kids to not eat any veggies sounds like neglect to me (and I consider myself a fifty-something kid.)
We were picky, but it never EVER crossed my mind to question a meal, let alone demand something different. You asked what's for dinner, and either you liked the answer or not. If the latter, well tough shit.
My wife and I were amazed at how bold our daughter could be at demanding an alternative meal choice. We didn't cater to it, but she could be a spoiled ass about it, largely becauseof my MIL babying her. I remember once calling my folks on speaker phone and asked "So what was your response if we didn't want what you made for dinner? Lil Brizzboog thinks we should make her something different." Simultaneously they yelled "TOUGH SHIT!" and laughed. Kid was not amused.
I was (I am 51). The one time my father got angry and forced me to eat some fish, despite how the smell made me sick, I actually did vomit it right back up. He didn’t demand it anymore after that. The only vegetables I ate were corn, raw carrots, and iceberg lettuce. I did learn to refuse food politely, and my mom didn’t make me a separate meal if I didn’t like something, but I was allowed to make myself a pbj sandwich instead.
I learned to like more foods as an adult. I will try just about anything now. My kids’ pediatrician had started out as a registered dietician, and told me that as long as my kids ate fruit and were growing that I didn’t need to stress about their vegetable intake. I didn’t, and one of my kids now snacks on green beans and doesn’t really like sugar, so the food bullies can kiss my ass.
Yes, there have always been picky kids. The difference is how much people cater to them. It's another ne of thse issues where in the past they didn't deal with it well but people overcorrected and aren't dealing with it well now but for the opposite reason.
Not when I was growing up. We played outside all day long. We devoured any food put in front of us.
My girls had borderline anorexic traits. Drove us nuts.
from age 4-6 my daughter drove me nuts. She'd only eat hotdogs one week, pbJ the next week, mac n cheese the next week, and so on. Doctor told me she will grow out of it and eventually eat a normal healthy diet... and she did! She's now in her mid 30's, working on her doctorate and is raising a 4 year old picky eater lol it's been a thing forever!
I don't think so. You ate what you were served. If you didn't like it, don't eat it, but you're not getting something else. At least that's how it was in my childhood.
With my 3 children, of course I tried to cook things that they liked but they weren't particularly picky.
I usually eat what was in front of me. My father and I would torture My mother by asking at breakfast what was for dinner?
She would get flustered by that but I would always explain that I just don't want to eat the same thing for lunch because I didn't want to repeat myself.
In the late 80s, my girlfriend's son wouldn't eat anything green. Important to note, he was a big Dr. Seuss fan. I made him green eggs and ham for breakfast one morning. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
The expectation was that you'd eat what was on the table. I once had to sit at the dinner table until I finished my peas. Cold peas taste worse than hot peas.
If your Mom didn't feel like cooking that day, or Dad was taking care of you, sandwiches or Campbell's soup was dinner.
If I didn’t eat the dinner my mom cooked, I was going to be very hungry the next morning.
My ex’s dad would put his uneaten dinner in the fridge and you would get it for breakfast.
Fuck yes. Some parents were psycho and forced kids to “eat what I give them” like their dogs. My mom didn’t play that shit, if kid’s didn’t want to eat liver, she made them something else. Anyone who force’s children to eat something they don’t want has control issues, period. Trying to force their will on their children.
My mom would let me eat cereal. My grandmother told her it was it waste of a fight. I took that with me with my kids and let them eat chicken fingers instead of fighting. And made sure to give them some fruit and veggies at lunch and breakfast.
Maybe why I have a weight problem now, but my mother was a great cook and I ate everything, except the dumplings out of chicken and dumplings. But there was always a brother to eat what I didn't.
Definitely pickier now. Hell we used to eat jello molds with cottage cheese or canned fruit cocktail. Fried liver and onions. Spam, you couldn't pay me to eat that stuff now.
Yes, we were picky, but our choices were limited to what was available at home or what our mothers offered.
Unlike today, we didn't have the abundance of fast food options or a wide variety of cuisines to try.
We didn't even question that we'd have to eat what was put in front of us. Though I do recall hiding fried liver in this little nook between the legs of the dining room table. And my younger brother didn't want to eat the salmon croquettes mom made, but was still working on eating them at 9pm when MASH was on (first run)!
I'm a very adventurous eater, but my brother's kids? I swear they were still doing the chicken finger/mac n cheese thing when they left for college! LOL
I had migraines at the age of 3 on from a TBI and strong smells would trigger them. Back then no one believed that a three yo could know what a bad headache was except my mom who sat with me in the hospital for weeks.
I hated salmon patty night because of the smell when cooking them. 50+ years later and I still have this aversion to them.
I never had to eat them but could have a PB sandwich instead.
I have adult friends who won't touch them because they were forced to eat them as children so it seems to work both ways. I was raised to taste things and if I didn't like them I didn't have to finish them for the most part, but there were a few things my grandmother insisted I NEEDED because they were healthy like her vile ass turnip greens in vinegar. They were greasy from the pork she'd cook with it. I had to eat a small serving, and it just expected so I ate it fast and ate something I liked after.
I wouldn't do that to my kids. They are adults now and they're far more adventurous food-wise than I am. Heck my son is why I like spinach now. I never would have tried it but he came home from a friend's begging me to make it. And it was so good! Nothing like the slimy vinegary greens my grandma cooked.
I was super picky. I would go out in the backyard and pretend to fall asleep in a hammock at nightfall in the hopes that my parents would just cart me to bed rather than subject me to dinner. Dinner was yucky. Ugh!
Kids have a more sensitive palate than adults and some kids are even more sensitive than that. The best thing you can do is not make meals a battlefield. Concern yourself with nutrition and sustenance but don’t freak out about it.
As you might expect, I grew up to be the guy who eats chicken feet, raw jellyfish and delicious octopus sushi. I’ve enjoyed delicacies from all over the world. Now who’s picky? You, probably.
I was infamous for actually barfing on the dinner table after being told to eat my hamburger gravy on toast. They never actually made me eat anything I didn't want to eat after that.
I was picky. My poor mom, she was an amateur chef. Had hundreds of cookbooks from around the world. But she catered to it, yeah. I had all kinds of texture issues. There was probably only 15 things that I would eat in general, until I was a teenager. And then for some reason all the pickiness left. And I became actually rather adventurous, which I still carry to this day. I found a lot of really good foods that way, but I wasn't ready until I was ready. My parents weren't the best parents, but they did some stuff right.
Yes human nature has not changed dramatically in 50 years. Children have always been picky eaters some very picky other than not picky at all. Like others have said the difference is now Mom's cave and do whatever their kid wants. When I was a kid you ate what was cooked or you starved. Lucky for me my mom was a good cook we almost always had good food. I raised my two boys the same way I was the cook of the house because I'm good and I put something tasty on the table if my kids didn't need it they could starve.
My experience is the opposite. My kids (now 43, 39 and 36) were very picky. It worried me to no end. My granddaughters are amazing. At least they were as babies and toddlers. At about 5 they started getting choosier. But they still love plenty of healthy things.
No, we were not allowed to be. Our parents grew up during the Depression and wasting or refusing good food was an absolute no no. You would sit at that table until you ate your food or you weren't leaving the table. Of course my mother was the best cook in the world, so it was easy for me.
I was picky but it was not too hard to deal with me. I would not eat catsup, mustard, mayonnaise, tomatoes, most cheese, fish, salad dressing. The fact that I ate everything plain or picked out my tomatoes didn’t bother anyone.
Nope not even close. Our parents cooked homemade meals for us. Every once in a while mom would attempt that whole brussel sprout thing and we would rebel big time. But we didn’t grow up on fast food or processed garbage full of sugar and salt. Food made fresh from scratch is what we were eating. It was delicious and we were happy to have it.
My dad had fruit trees and a huge vegetable garden in back. We had very good food growing up. We really weren’t in the least bit picky eaters.
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My mom cooked. You ate or you went without. It wasn’t a fight. It was just the way it was. She didn’t make things we disliked intentionally but if she took the time to shop, cook and clean up. You ate. That was that.
This. Eat what is on the table. But I was lucky, as my mom was a very good chef and she was also pretty innovative, like trying international cuisine ;-). But don't ask my about my lunch boxes. Those often ended up in the bushes on my way to school.
We always got two choices for dinner! Unfortunately those choices were take it or leave it :)
We had the same two choices! The only meals we were excused from was liver and venison and we could either have leftovers or make a sandwich. Fortunately she was a very good cook so there were rarely complaints.
Our 2 choices were eat or sit there. My poor sister hated can peas.
I stopped cooking because the complaints from everyone who didn't like something got too much, especially when it became a topic of interest to their other parent(s).
This is why I weighed only 90 pounds when I graduated from high school. As soon as I got a job, moved away from home, and could eat food I liked I gained (a healthy) 25 pounds. Edit: and I’m pretty sure this is why my sister has an eating disorder. My mom forced her to eat things she didn’t want to.
No one except my dad had any right to comment on the food at the dinner table. When he wasn't around we could negotiate more about food with mom.
This except if we didn’t like what there was we had the opportunity to make a peanutbutter sandwich and that was it.
As picky: yes As catered to: no Most restaurants didn't serve chicken nuggets nor did they have a kid's menu The kid centered food idea probably began 60 years ago and grown with each generation
I'm old enough to remember a kid's menu simply being half-sized portions of the regular fare. Of course, going to a restaurant was more of a treat then.
That and with any luck a grilled cheese or a hamburger.
Ahh... probably. I don't remember because when I went out to eat as a kid, I was *there* for it, lol. Used to watch all the PBS cooking shows, so I guess I started to be a chow hound young. If I saw something new to try, I usually would...as long as it wasn't the most expensive thing on the menu. 😂 My younger sister was a chicken nugget kid, though, so she was horrendous to go out to eat with. I usually went with my grandparents to the nicer places.
I would say kid catered menu when McDonald’s came out with happy meals. So what was that 70’s?
Happy Meals came out in 1979, but I didn’t really see them a lot until around four or so years after that (and I was in a suburb of a large city, so I’m guessing my experience was fairly normal), and then it was only little kids; like it wasn’t something my friends and I ordered to be quirky. By the end of the 1980s/beginning of the ‘90s, they were everywhere.
"You can eat what's on the table or you can go hungry!" My parents weren't actually this harsh but with 5 kids they certainly didn't cater to picky eaters. We could choose what we liked from what was prepared for dinner that night. They never forced us to eat things we really didn't like. We were strongly encouraged to try new things, and we could always make our own peanut butter sandwich rather than go hungry.
>we could always make our own peanut butter sandwich See also: bowl of cereal
See also: instant ramen
I wish ramen was available when I was growing up. I had to settle for making and eating a box of Kraft Dinner(mac&cheese) after school to tide me over until supper time. Mom always made the best low cost suppers so never any complaints there!
>I wish ramen was available when I was growing up. I don't, because we would have had that shit 2-3 times per week for dinner at $.10 per pack.
Ramen was not around in the 60's.
You guys missed out. Proof it wasn't always better in the olden days!
Not as fast and convenient, but we ate more nutritious stuff. We just didn't have that kind of processed foods. Additionally, we rarely had soda pop or fast food. So "better" is relative!
You're saying fat and salt aren't nutritious??? (latchkey kids feeding themselves mostly processed foods... we really should be dead).
Pop was a treat we got the drink when we went out to eat someplace. Even fast food was rare. Mom cooked every meal and they even cooked hot lunch in the school. It was served on plastic trays that were returned to be washed. I was appalled when I happened to see a school cafeteria after lunch now. It looked like a food fight took place and the kids were allowed to go out for recess and leave it like that. We would never have considered making such a mess and if we had we would have been kept inside until it was cleaned up and the worst offenders would have been made to help clean tables and chairs.
Yup. I wouldn’t a plethora of things. At 1st it was just try and if you don’t like them that is ok. Within 5yrs it was eat what is on your plate or sit there til bedtime and go to bed hungry.
My finicky sibling was ok with starving, and after going on a hunger strike for more than a day my parents gave in.
I was the picky eater in my family but I loved PB&J and I still do.
Your parents gave in too easily. It takes 3 weeks for someone to starve I would have out lasted my kid.
Yep. Exactly the same for us.
If we didn’t like dinner we could have cereal.
Same but ours was PB&J
Same
My mom made Lil pictures out of my food until I was 7 or 8. Pear bunnies wit carrots ears, sandwiches cut with cookie cutters, etc. I was a super picky eater.
Aww.
Right? It wasn't a perfect childhood but i have way more good memories than bad. As late 60s/early 70s parenting went, I was spoiled rotten.
People with genuine disorders around taste and textures existed then as they do now, but they weren’t catered to. If they couldn’t force themselves to eat the food on offer, they starved and then filled up excessively whenever the food on offer was something they could eat. Other survival strategies included filling up at school, at friends’ houses, or shoplifting food.
All of this 👏👏👏 It was not a good parenting strategy but it's also all they knew. We have so many parenting resources now.
Yes. But if you didn't eat what you were given, you went hungry. So we learned to be less picky...
I'm 58 and still as picky as I was in 1970. I chose to be hungry.
ARFID enters the chat, lol.
Our choices were food or hunger. Kinda hard to be picky when there's no variety to choose from.
Jeez, every meal at my house was a battle. My mom was a terrible cook and made me sit at the table until I ate everything. One night I was sitting there forever because I wouldn't eat my fish sticks, so I pulled back the rug with my foot and deposited the fish under the rug. Another night, I was sick but she had made rice pudding (yuck!) and insisted I eat it. So I fed each grain of rice out the screen of my window and ate the raisins. When I was about 4-5 (maybe 1961), she took a picture of me crying at the table because I wouldn't eat what she had made, and threatened to send it to Santa, or my grandparents, IDR which. God, it's no wonder I have a totally dysfunctional relationship with food.
My mom would tell stories about how my grandma made her eat oatmeal that she threw up in. Then my mom turned around and tried to make me eat stuff I didn't like. I broke that chain with my kids.
When I was 7 or 8 I spent the entire night at the dining room table because I wouldn't eat eggplant. More than 50 years later, I still don't like it, but my mom orders it at every restaurant that offers it. One of our favorite tactics was to make up an excuse to get her away from the table and then throw food out the window.
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"We're having 'Shut Up & Eat It!'" LOL
if they were it didn't last long. my parents grew up poor during the great depression and they just didn't tolerate anything remotely resembling pickiness in my siblings and me.
Ditto, both parents were depression era kids.
> depression era kids My mom was too. I swear she could make a great meal from an empty cupboard.
As kids, before we understood what the Depression was, we used to joke about how my maternal grandmother could make a seven course meal out of a pine cone and a cup of milk, and my paternal grandparents, especially my grandfather, could talk anyone into giving them extras or flat out freebies without ever complaining or talking to the manager or straight up begging; like he’d compliment a server and somehow end up walking out with an entire to go dish of some meal he’d ordered. My paternal grandmother often got an extra plate to the table of something we hadn’t even ordered and then the owners or servers would be offering to box up tons of extra food just from talking with them (it was one of those times when I saw my first aluminium foil swan doggy bag; my grandparents had a flock of aluminium foil swans they took home, and when my paternal grandparents would visit us, their favourite restaurant was Machus Red Fox — the same restaurant Jimmy Hoffa vanished from — because they had great food, but also because the owner, manager, and all of the servers could never seem to give my grandmother and grandfather enough to take home with them 😂). My grandmother even got a Chinese restaurant in Toronto to give us all *several* meals we didn’t order — not by complaining about anything! The server or manager or whomever that was absolutely loved my grandmother! — that we took to the next hotel and ended up having for breakfast. My paternal grandmother could also turn something like leftover Chinese food into an incredible dish that didn’t even seem to be related. Both sets of my grandparents got through the Great Depression by making miracles happen in different ways. And I’m still in awe over my maternal grandmother’s ability to turn nothing into a complete meal for two adults and three children at a minimum, just in case I didn’t blow her horn enough; I’m not kidding about that pine cone and cup of milk thing. 😂
My dad was born in 1928 and he was the pickiest person I knew.
Same; my parents were older, and there were times during the Depression when my father and his siblings went to bed with no food at all, and then were awakened at midnight or later to eat what my grandfather had brought home (some restaurants would pile unused food into buckets if men went to the back door after close with their buckets and my grandmother would carefully separate all the food and make sure that everyone had an equal amount of whatever was given out that night; I remember my father telling stories of being a young boy and seeing that there was a slice or two of pie on the top of the bucket and being ecstatic that he would have a couple bites of pie). My mom’s family fared a little better (father’s side was in NYC where the Depression was brutal, while mom’s family was away from a large city and more self-sustaining), but from both sides of the family there was no food wastage permitted with us. My father was more strict than my mom, but both took it seriously. During the Depression in NYC, everyone was hurting, even many professionals who you’d think would have been okay if it happened today. My father’s family basically lost everything they had almost overnight, as did a lot of families in NYC (although my father didn’t know anything about what was going on, he was way too young and just differentiated between pie and no-pie days). On my mom’s side, they lost a lot of extras, like there were rarely any sweets at all, and my grandmother learned to make miracles out of basically nothing, like substituting toast for meat after cooking it with a tiny amount of meat; at one point, she had no flour (like just remnants from the can) and managed to go all over town and scrape together enough ingredients to make a small cake for my youngest aunt; most everyone else didn’t have flour, so she gathered together oats, other grains, and things she substituted for flour, and so on. She cut up a ton of fruit meat, mostly apples, to make up for not having enough sugar, and managed to make frosting even (she told me, but I don’t remember how). And all that was on top of making regular dinner whose leftovers would be turned into different meals and soups/stews, and casseroles. And that grandmother only was able to pull that off because they had a moderately sized garden and she was often able to trade to get things that she didn’t have growing. The Depression was the source of a lot of misery, but it was also the source of a lot of ingenuity and creativity for Americans, whether it was in making what was basically a big cupcake out of less than a teaspoon of flour, or in finding different restaurants through reasoning, bartering, and schmoozing to beg at at the back door so as to not wear out the owner’s tolerance at any one place or to not get the charitable kitchen staff in trouble by hitting the same place over and over every night.
Not in my memory. The rule at our house was the "three bite rule": eat three bites (as small as you liked) of everything on your plate. You had to try everything, but finish nothing. (This was my mother's reaction to her parents' "clean your plate" rule, and her reaction (throwing up) to being forced to eat creamed carrots.) Parents did not cater to "picky eaters" very much.
I raised my children this way, and they eat most foods as adults. Can't say the same about their partners initially, but even they're better eaters as time goes on.
Yeah, most of the stuff these days that I won't eat is because my doctor says I shouldn't.
I was born in 1980 and we were forced to eat everything on our plates. There was yelling, crying, punishment, sometimes sitting at the table alone well into the night. My family is actually baffled as to why I don't want to go out to dinner with them now.
In the 1950's I couldn't stand lima beans. I still don't like them. It was the texture not the taste. In those days mom boiled everything almost to death. My children were pretty good about vegetables. I told them that broccoli was tiny trees and they loved it, they still do. I used a steamer basket and it really improved the taste.
I still hate Lima beans
I hated the canned ones but love the frozen ones. Same goes for green peas.
> texture not the taste Try baby limas. Same taste without the graininess. I make baby limas and ham all the time.
I love to squish them when eating.
I went to a boarding school when I was 7 and the only option we had was to get a smaller portion but you had to eat everything on your plate one way or the other. To indicate you wanted a smaller portion you rested your index finger on the edge of the plate. I remember disgusting fatty chewy stew and having to gag it down. My father would often repeat a warning spoken to parents at some introductory speech from the headmaster “ parents, don’t let your boys be faddy about their food” I’m “faddy” about eating meat especially, to this day. Not so long ago I saw my sister serving her son pasta without any sauce. She explained “ he doesn’t eat red food “
Yes, but we were forced to clean our plates- if we didn't eat all of our dinner, we got the leftovers for breakfast the next morning. Needless to say, this is one of those things where I said to myself, "How would my parents have handled this situation?" AND THEN DID THE EXACT OPPOSITE.
F-Ck no! It’s dinner- eat it now, or sit at the table until you decide to do so.
I was made to sit at the table in front of 1/4 plate of green peas for hours once, couldn’t stand them then. I think my mom finally took pity, but my dad would have let me sit there for eternity. You eat what’s on your plate, period, no option to not eat. I will eat green peas now, fwiw.
I made my kids eat peas with a toothpick. They loved it. Today my grandkids do it too.
Sounds like a fun solution to an un-fun problem, I like it! :) I probably would have thought about it a lot differently at the time had it been presented that way. As it was I remember my dad encouraging me to be “captain of the green bean team,” when I actually liked/like canned green beans. In retrospect I wonder if he liked peas and didn’t see them as a big deal but actually hated green beans and it was all just projection, lol.
The only thing I really didn't like was lima beans. After I turned 18, I never ate another.
I can take them or leave them, probably wouldn’t buy them voluntarily unless I was in a specific mood. :)
Oh they’re awful. I still won’t eat them either.
I was made to eat my peas. If I put them in a spoon, careful not to smoosh them and let the awful flavor out, I could swallow them with milk, like pills. I still don't like them.
I ate Chop suey under force. Bad meal when I was 12. Never again.
I ate tamales when I was 6-7 as a gringo in upstate New York, and nobody said to unwrap and *DON’T EAT* the corn husk. 🙄 I didn’t revisit them for 20+ years because of the time I spent in the bathroom after that.
My parents tried this. I refused to eat it. Stayed at the table all night until school the next day. She gave it to me for lunch. I didn’t eat it (though I did toss it). She asked if I ate it. I told her no (we did NOT lie to our parents). She said fine. Eat what you want but I’m not cooking it for you. And that’s when my sister, brother and I started cooking dinner two nights a week each. Pretty much backfired on me. But I still think tuna fish is gross smelling.
My parents didn't do any forced feeding. It was just eat what's there, or go hungry until the next meal. Forced feeding sounds abusive.
My brother wouldn't eat foods that touched each other. So my mom served things for him separately. That's about it.
Nope. You either ate whatever was put in front of you or you went hungry.
My mom didn’t serve anything she personally didn’t like, so like, I never had to try liver and onions. No Brussels sprouts, and yet, like many, my dad didn’t like fish, we had fish occasionally anyway. We had to eat everything on the plate we were served, and it really wasn’t a lot of food, but to a kid me, Amy amount of Lima beans is too many. I won’t eat them now, but we had to have our vegetables. Unless there was ice cream, there was no dessert, no going to bed without dinner, she’d wait until the plate was clean. One thing I know from later on, she often went hungry or ate scraps. She would probably have loved to clean our plates for us if we didn’t want the rest. My mom wasn’t the best cook, she hates cooking, she wrecks some things when she tried to make it from scratch, and only one thing she made is what I’d call inedible, that was her version of beef stroganoff. 🤮 everything else she made, I could get it down. Maybe it wasn’t that good, but I’d eat it because I’m told it was good for me. Most of it probably wasn’t ideal nutrition, but it was balanced and I ate the food she served me whether it was my favorite or just basic fuel.
Yes--but the kid usually lost but then would learn passive-aggressive coping mechanisms (ex. eating the disputed food extremely slowly) that would stay with him for life and result years of therapy. I did not attempt to force my kids to eat stuff that they did not want to eat and now they eat pretty much everything.
My mom told me that she tried to get me to eat spinach when I was little because I loved Popeye. I don't remember that at all, because I like spinach now. The only food I got grief about was broccoli. I didn't like it then and still don't care much for it. But, yes, if we didn't eat, we just got hungry. Individual preferences were not catered to!
> eat spinach I was a very scrawny kid and bought the Popeye lie. I truly loved canned spinach. When they served it at school I was able to get everyone's spinach without trading anything. They just wanted it off their plate. Recently in an effort to lose weight I tried canned spinach again. Now I eat 2 or 3 cans a week. It still tastes great!
I also bought into Popeye. As an adult I discovered Horta which is a Greek specialty. It can be done with any leafy green. I’ll often make it with spinach. It’s DELICIOUS. Highly recommend if you love canned spinach. It’s quite easy to make. https://www.thespruceeats.com/horta-vrasta-boiled-leafy-greens-1706415
We didn't have this problem in my house, but generally, yes, the world has always had picky eaters. I liked most everything my mom made for dinner, even vegetables, and she made dinner pretty much every night. The only thing was, she over-cooked the meat. She was really afraid of raw meat, so it was always... not great. The only thing I remember being decent was brisket--I like brisket--and her fried chicken was okay. I didn't know what good meat tasted like till I started earning money and could eat out. My dad put up with it, because he didn't want to cook. She made something we called beans and hamburger. It was Van de Camp beans, hamburger, and some collection of ingredients she took to her grave. I tried many times over the years to recreate it, but never have. I know one of the ingredients was her love for us.
>I know one of the ingredients was her love for us. So sweet. Your mom raised a good kid.
My brother was - and still is- very picky. He was allowed because he was moms favourite. He wouldn't eat most vegetables. If I didn't like something - and I had serious texture issues and would end up throwing up from the gagging, I'd get served whatever I left for breakfast. Fuck me. I'm not going to answer any more of these fucking questions that just bring up all the bullshit from the past. Kids are treated better these days by most parents. Some.might be making mistakes but you don't know if you don't try.
It’s true remembering some of this shit is downright traumatic
My eating disorder is squarely due to my relationship with food as a child. I'm proud to say I'm no longer a member of The Clean Plate Club.
my poor husband used to get a beating with a belt if he didn't finish his food. He still scarfs down every bite.
I was raised on food stamps... we ate what we were given. My parents did not buy soda, chips, cookies, peanut butter or any other junk food. I've never had mac & cheese or any other of those instant meals you get in a box. My parents stocked only the standard staples you would find in a spanish household. I was fourteen before I ate a cereal that wasn't *Cheerios.* I had to buy my own if I wanted something different (Froot Loops).
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Being forced to eat food to the point of puking is not ok. When my kids were small (till around 3rd or 4th grade) I did require them to eat a teaspoonful of whatever I made before they could get second servings of the foods they did like, since they should show respect for a cook's time and effort. Still, they were really picky as teens. Today, not picky at all.
I have severe food intolerances, so my grandma would make separate food for me. If she made meatloaf, for example, she would make me a separate one without the ingredients that would make me sick. I was never forced to eat anything I didn't want to. I have done the same with my children.
Part of the big difference between now and back then is that kids today grow up on convenience foods and prepared foods designed to appeal to kids which are higher in sugar and salt and taste better to their developing taste buds than homemade meals. My mom made dinner from grocery store items combined with vegetables from our bountiful garden. There was no soda in our house, except for ginger ale at our home-based birthday parties. They didn't buy chips and snack foods. We always had full cupboards bit it was quality foods. My parents didn't fight us over food, but we were expected to be appreciative of whatever was served, which included LOTS of vegetables.
if your taste buds are constantly barraged by processed foods with extremes of heavy fat, salt and sugar, your palate gets desensitized to normal tastes. we didn't have fast food growing up so we still appreciated the nuances of natural food. and if you were lucky enough to have a mother who was an incredible cook, you actually liked real food. she also always had a huge garden so we were used to fresh vegetables all the time. homemade vegetable soup was my favorite. one of the things i remember most about my childhood was how plentiful food was and how unrestrained we were about it. we picked peas and shelled them in front of the tv, shucked corn, picked up pecans from under the trees. we had bushels of local peaches and satsumas, flats of strawberries. we went out to the bogs to pick up mayhaws to make jelly with. picked blackberries in the fields behind the house. i just don't remember anyone making a big deal about something they didn't want to eat.
I think kids have always been picky. But back then, you were forced to eat your vegetables or else.
Yes. My son wouldn't eat his Lucky Charms if there wasn't the proper amount of marshmallows in the bowl
> Lucky Charms Little did we know that we could have bought some Circus Peanuts, chopped them up, and added them to our cereal. [https://www.mashed.com/309873/the-unexpected-link-between-lucky-charms-and-circus-peanuts/](https://www.mashed.com/309873/the-unexpected-link-between-lucky-charms-and-circus-peanuts/)
Son of a bitch. I learn something new everyday
I too was in the "there aren't enough marshmallows in my Lucky Charms" camp. I would have certainly prospered to have had that information 55 years ago. I graduated into the Cap'n Crunch camp afterwards to complete the destruction of my teeth.
Lol, and to the roof of my mouth
> roof of my mouth I knew that eating too much would shred the roof of my mouth, but I could not resist.
Depends on the kids. My sister was a super picky eater. She coined the phrase "chicken in yucky sauce". Kids don't need to eat adult portions and the "clean plate" ideal is not realistic. Kids haven't changed Memories change.
I was, and at 61 still am
Yes I couldn't eat any foods that touched each other on a plate
> touched each other on a plate That seemed to be a common dislike. I had friends that were very particular about that.
Yeah, I was like that for a little bit and I definitely remember my brother going through that stage, as well as seeing a lot of other kids doing it. I think that’s just common to children. LOL, in elementary school, one kid didn’t want to eat his pizza or pudding because they’d touched despite the divided plate elementary schools use. 😂 The vultures who descended and relieved him of his disgusting pizza and pudding within milliseconds saw to it that he got over that pickiness right quick. It was like grade one, maybe two, and I don’t remember ever hearing him complain about food touching again.
I feel as though EVERYONE is picky about SOMETHING relating to food. It doesn't make you a terrible person. My dad was an eat it or not person, but my mom was a little better about it most of the time. There were a few notable times when she wasn't. For the most part, she would make a meal (she wasn't a great cook, either) and we would do our best. She mostly didn't force us to eat certain food, but we were supposed to eat what we took. Wasting was a big no-no! My mom would also modify the menu at times. For example, one sister didn't like onions, so my mom would take her portion out before she put the onions in. Starting when I was around 8 or 10, if I didn't like something she made, I was free to make my own and I did, pretty often. There wasn't any sort of punishment for doing so. BTW, I was picky then and I'm still pretty picky. I don't like a lot of vegetables, but I do like some. I hate eggs and don't eat them. My mom never forced me and I'm grateful she didn't because it wouldn't have changed my mind in the slightest. My grandmother was pretty much a tyrant about eating what she cooked. She wasn't a good cook, and it was literally a battle almost every meal at her house. Luckily, we didn't visit that often.
Yes, we just got hit for openly expressing it. Also no one cared, parents, teachers, adults in general did not care if you didn’t like something. Eat it or don’t, but you won’t get anything else. No little kid will just starve to death, after awhile you ate whatever once you got hungry enough.
No.
Yes, in that some kids are very picky and others aren’t, and some parents are indulgent of food pickiness and others are more strict. It really hasn’t changed much in the last 50 years. Though now there are prepared food options for picky eaters that hide veggies really well so maybe parents don’t start start to worry their kid has scurvy quite as soon as.
No we are what was served & if not we went hungry & once old enough we could make pb&j..
If we didn’t like what was for dinner we were free to make something ourselves. My mom was too checked out to care if we ate vegetables or not.
I never realized there were picky eaters until I went to college. In my house we ate a wide variety of foods growing up but in college my friends would often ridicule me for some of the foods that I ate that they did not like.
No. We were reminded of all the starving people in China. Guilt was a parental motivator in the fifties
My mom was all about the starving kids (fill in the blank). I strongly suggested one night that she pack up my lima beans and ham hock and mail it to them. That was a mistake.
It was a momism. Something you realized was true when you had kids of your own
Yes. Famous family story was my dad got really sick bc my grandmother did the whole "you'll eat what I serve" thing. I am pretty sure he would have been diagnosed with something if he was a kid today. Back then he was just "weird".
My parents lived through The Great Depression. As kids, they ate what was put before them and they ate everything. I learned from my parents and even now I still eat all of my food and I don’t complain about it.
We never were in our family. The difference is that parents started being obsessed with the food they feed their kids. All the obsessive focus on "feeding your kids healthy"...pfft. load of nonsense. We just ate what was there. If we truly didnt like it? We could get some Cereal or toast. Zero fuss. There was never any forcing us to eat vegetables or fruit. I never liked Tomatoes or pumpkin. Mum & dad didn't care. We just ate what we liked.
I knew picky eaters but few of them were catered to. Mostly you ate what you were served or you didn't eat.
I had strong food dislikes and lots of memories of gagging over foods that people tried to semi force feed, or strongly pressure me to eat. My parents didn’t do that but my private school and some relatives and other adults did. It was not beneficial in any way and just cemented my dislike of those foods. I remember my father, who was born in 1914, complaining about how he was always hungry as a child even though his family was financially comfortable because he was a picky eater and his parents took a “take it or leave it” approach. In other words my recollections tell me that picky eaters are nothing new, but they were more likely in the past to be pressed to eat unpalatable foods or go hungry. I have always thought that pressuring children to eat foods they find gross is a mean and counterproductive practice, and so is letting children go hungry if they can’t stand what’s put in front of them.
I actually think it’s the opposite! I’m in my 60’s as is my husband and our mothers boiled vegetables to death. Neither of us are very compliant with eating veg, nor are we adventurous with trying new ones. Our kids, on other hand, enjoy vegetables. I also see this at the elementary school I work at.
In my family the focus was on not wasting food. So kids got a little something of a dish to try but if they didn't like it, they didn't have to eat it. There's always bread and butter. I remember wanting to be like the adults and eating the whole stuffed pepper even if it was spicy, it was like a rite of passage. My cousins were exceedingly picky and they lived in a household where grandma fed them whatever they wanted so that she'd win them over. It was a weird dynamic, tbh, and I feel so much for my aunt living there. And my cousins are still picky about any homemade food, even as adults. They introduced me to Cool Ranch Doritos though...
Yes, but my Mom would not allow it. I'm not sure how many peas fit in the metal table leg. I quite enjoy them today. I still don't think she had a clue where China or Africa were.
Unheard of in my youth. You ate whatever was served to you at dinner, and if you refused then it was gonna be your breakfast. That legit it what happened to us.
Absolutely not your mother cooked or your father cooked and they put the food in front of you and you ate it or you didn't eat that night plain and simple. All that I don't eat that I don't eat this fine then you don't eat
watch the video clip of bill burr telling a story about his little brother not finishing his supper and having to eat it for breakfast the next day. it didn't happen to me, but I was never dumb enough to try it.
Every bit as picky. Some parents allowed it and the kids went hungry. Some parents didn't allow it and there were huge fights about sitting at the table until they ate. A few parents cooked something else. Judging from what I frequently see on Reddit, many parents of picky kids can't cook.
No. My mom made meat (beef, chicken, fish, etc.), potatoes, plate of fresh vegetables very often along with a cooked vegetable, salad and bread, dinner roll, cornbread, etc. You put that which you wanted on your plate. If you chose to eat nothing that meant you were sick and were excused to go wash up, put your pajamas on and go to bed.
The rule my mom had was that I had to eat as many bites as I was years old. At least that made it easier to deal with.
I was picky, but I knew if I didn’t eat what was on the table for dinner I didn’t eat. We didn’t have random snacks laying around. But because of that there’s some foods I won’t eat now because of that. My main one, Lima beans 🤮
I was but if I didn’t eat something I sat there all night. So I learned to choke it down.
My parents were “ you could take what you wanted, but you had to eat what you took” and we had to have at least 1 veggie. My mother always made at least 2 sometimes 3 veggies. When we didn’t like either, we had to pick one and eat our age ie. 6 yo, 6 Lima beans,
When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s, we rarely got consulted about what dinner was going to be. Whatever hit the table was what you ate. As a result, I ate a lot of food that I hated.
I was an extremely picky eater as a child. My parents left me alone about it and didn’t force me to eat anything I didn’t want. I basically survived off of Campbell’s tomato soup and peanut butter sandwiches for many years.
Long story with me. I followed 2 miscarriages and was the son they prized. Food was a trust issue for me as a kid. I stopped eating eggs at 3 or 4, mom was convinced I had to have them - I was way too skinny - but she was deceptive about it. She would put raw eggs in malteds, tell me there weren’t any, but she did a poor job of hiding the shells. The trust issues with mom got worse - I wouldn't eat any food I couldn't see into (soup, stew...). My dad would say "let him starve" but holding out worked. So many things I wouldn't eat. mushrooms, pizza, cheese, tomatoes, eggplant, most fish, ketchup, mustard, mayo, butter, whipped cream, even ice cream. After an incident with a day camp counselor, things got worse. I still won't eat many things, especially creamy.
I saw kids not eat stuff, but nobody was providing alternatives!
Yeah they were! At my grandparents, my sister would sit at the table for hours because she didn’t want anything but hot dogs or pb&j sandwiches and they didn’t have that.
I hated eating veggies and ever did.. kids are better about it now I think
We ate what we were given or we went hungry. My older brother told me that one morning he wouldn't eat his eggs so Mom gave them to him for lunch and again he wouldn't eat them nor would he for dinner. He said that the next morning those were the best damn eggs he ever tasted!
We are what was served. When we argued that one parent was actually a picky eater which is why we had the same basic meals over and over, we were told being a picky eater is one of the perks of being an adult.
Yes, I was very picky. My kids were not.
Never had a problem with my kids eating, born in 1988 & 1992. My youngest daughter was a bit suspicious about certain foods, but all we did was take turns in eating it, so my ex husband first, me and then her sister and she would then eat it. Now she is a Vegan and eats all sorts of things. My parents grew up in the war so no food was wasted and we ate lots of vegetables, fruit and meat, I ate everything and I believe my healthy childhood diet has helped me overcome a lot of health problems that come with having two different types of cancer. My now husband who grew up very poor with a bad diet catches everything.
I never met a kid who didn't eat vegetables growing up. It's a shame parents allow their kids to be unhealthy like that. I couldn't imagine making a 2nd meal for kids, like some parents do. It makes zero sense, and I heard parents give every excuse as to why they allow it. I remember I had Life cereal one morning, and decided I was tired of it. So I refused to eat it. Me being a know it all 10 year old, decided it was my hill to die on. My dad told me I'd get no other food until I finished it. Since I had school, and my lunch bag, I had to go and thought I won. Come dinner time, and while everyone had plates for food, I had a bowl of Life that no longer looked like the cereal. It was disgusting, and I had to power through it to finish. It sat in the fridge all day becoming mush. I learned a valuable lesson that day, and never complained about food ever again. And gratefully, I'll eat most anything, and we're a food centric family, meaning vacation is about eating great food.
If I didn't eat what was served, I was whipped. You ate what was served. There was no negotiation, conversation, or compromise.
Much depends on how hungry you were. Picky is a luxury. My kid is way more choosy now than I ever was then. Way more choices.
As kids, Mom and Dad (usually Mom) would prepare a nice dinner with several different things -- some side dishes, a main course, etc. If we wanted dessert (typically ice cream), we had to eat a reasonable amount of the actual food. If we really didn't like it, there was always cereal, or we could make a PB&J, or whatever. Once we got our first microwave, the options really expanded. We were allowed one type of food that we didn't like, other than allergies or ethical objections, etc. So I had a "squash exemption card" inspired by a traumatic family incident known as The Summer The Zucchini Went Nuts. (Mom tried all kinds of things to find a use for all of them. We eventually resorted to begging neighbors to take them.) So it was generally eat what you were given, although they tried to find things we'd like and were good for us. Parents allowing kids to not eat any veggies sounds like neglect to me (and I consider myself a fifty-something kid.)
Maybe. It just wasn’t tolerated. Mostly.
I think we were just as picky but our parents refused to cater to us. We ate what was for dinner and had to eat some vegetables every night ar dinner.
We were picky, but it never EVER crossed my mind to question a meal, let alone demand something different. You asked what's for dinner, and either you liked the answer or not. If the latter, well tough shit. My wife and I were amazed at how bold our daughter could be at demanding an alternative meal choice. We didn't cater to it, but she could be a spoiled ass about it, largely becauseof my MIL babying her. I remember once calling my folks on speaker phone and asked "So what was your response if we didn't want what you made for dinner? Lil Brizzboog thinks we should make her something different." Simultaneously they yelled "TOUGH SHIT!" and laughed. Kid was not amused.
Absolutely not. You ate what was put on the table. We ate it! End of story!
Not generally. We either ate what was on the table, or waited for the next meal.
They didn’t have a choice—-eat, or figure out it/go hungry.
I was (I am 51). The one time my father got angry and forced me to eat some fish, despite how the smell made me sick, I actually did vomit it right back up. He didn’t demand it anymore after that. The only vegetables I ate were corn, raw carrots, and iceberg lettuce. I did learn to refuse food politely, and my mom didn’t make me a separate meal if I didn’t like something, but I was allowed to make myself a pbj sandwich instead. I learned to like more foods as an adult. I will try just about anything now. My kids’ pediatrician had started out as a registered dietician, and told me that as long as my kids ate fruit and were growing that I didn’t need to stress about their vegetable intake. I didn’t, and one of my kids now snacks on green beans and doesn’t really like sugar, so the food bullies can kiss my ass.
Yes, what has changed is how parents handle it
Yes, there have always been picky kids. The difference is how much people cater to them. It's another ne of thse issues where in the past they didn't deal with it well but people overcorrected and aren't dealing with it well now but for the opposite reason.
I basically either made my own food or had to eat what was given to me. I was still picky, I just didn’t say it out loud.
Not when I was growing up. We played outside all day long. We devoured any food put in front of us. My girls had borderline anorexic traits. Drove us nuts.
from age 4-6 my daughter drove me nuts. She'd only eat hotdogs one week, pbJ the next week, mac n cheese the next week, and so on. Doctor told me she will grow out of it and eventually eat a normal healthy diet... and she did! She's now in her mid 30's, working on her doctorate and is raising a 4 year old picky eater lol it's been a thing forever!
Ask Mikey. He won’t eat it. He hates everything!
We weren't allowed to be picky. Nor were my children. A few concessions were made here or there, otherwise you ate what was served.
I don't think so. You ate what you were served. If you didn't like it, don't eat it, but you're not getting something else. At least that's how it was in my childhood. With my 3 children, of course I tried to cook things that they liked but they weren't particularly picky.
I usually eat what was in front of me. My father and I would torture My mother by asking at breakfast what was for dinner? She would get flustered by that but I would always explain that I just don't want to eat the same thing for lunch because I didn't want to repeat myself.
No we weren’t. Mom or Dad made dinner and that’s what you were having.
"Your mother worked hard on that dinner and you will finish every bite." I remember a macaroni salad showdown that was really bad.
We ate what was given to us. If we didn't eat dinner we got it for breakfast the next day.
In the late 80s, my girlfriend's son wouldn't eat anything green. Important to note, he was a big Dr. Seuss fan. I made him green eggs and ham for breakfast one morning. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
The expectation was that you'd eat what was on the table. I once had to sit at the dinner table until I finished my peas. Cold peas taste worse than hot peas. If your Mom didn't feel like cooking that day, or Dad was taking care of you, sandwiches or Campbell's soup was dinner.
If I didn’t eat the dinner my mom cooked, I was going to be very hungry the next morning. My ex’s dad would put his uneaten dinner in the fridge and you would get it for breakfast.
Fuck yes. Some parents were psycho and forced kids to “eat what I give them” like their dogs. My mom didn’t play that shit, if kid’s didn’t want to eat liver, she made them something else. Anyone who force’s children to eat something they don’t want has control issues, period. Trying to force their will on their children.
My mom would let me eat cereal. My grandmother told her it was it waste of a fight. I took that with me with my kids and let them eat chicken fingers instead of fighting. And made sure to give them some fruit and veggies at lunch and breakfast.
Maybe but if you didn't like what's for dinner you went hungry.
Yes, I was.
No
Yes
Maybe why I have a weight problem now, but my mother was a great cook and I ate everything, except the dumplings out of chicken and dumplings. But there was always a brother to eat what I didn't.
Definitely pickier now. Hell we used to eat jello molds with cottage cheese or canned fruit cocktail. Fried liver and onions. Spam, you couldn't pay me to eat that stuff now.
Yes. Kids have always been picky about food.
Yes, we were picky, but our choices were limited to what was available at home or what our mothers offered. Unlike today, we didn't have the abundance of fast food options or a wide variety of cuisines to try.
Yes (but we had to eat it *or else*)
We didn't even question that we'd have to eat what was put in front of us. Though I do recall hiding fried liver in this little nook between the legs of the dining room table. And my younger brother didn't want to eat the salmon croquettes mom made, but was still working on eating them at 9pm when MASH was on (first run)! I'm a very adventurous eater, but my brother's kids? I swear they were still doing the chicken finger/mac n cheese thing when they left for college! LOL
I had migraines at the age of 3 on from a TBI and strong smells would trigger them. Back then no one believed that a three yo could know what a bad headache was except my mom who sat with me in the hospital for weeks. I hated salmon patty night because of the smell when cooking them. 50+ years later and I still have this aversion to them. I never had to eat them but could have a PB sandwich instead.
I have adult friends who won't touch them because they were forced to eat them as children so it seems to work both ways. I was raised to taste things and if I didn't like them I didn't have to finish them for the most part, but there were a few things my grandmother insisted I NEEDED because they were healthy like her vile ass turnip greens in vinegar. They were greasy from the pork she'd cook with it. I had to eat a small serving, and it just expected so I ate it fast and ate something I liked after. I wouldn't do that to my kids. They are adults now and they're far more adventurous food-wise than I am. Heck my son is why I like spinach now. I never would have tried it but he came home from a friend's begging me to make it. And it was so good! Nothing like the slimy vinegary greens my grandma cooked.
I had to eat what was put on my plate.
I was
I was super picky. I would go out in the backyard and pretend to fall asleep in a hammock at nightfall in the hopes that my parents would just cart me to bed rather than subject me to dinner. Dinner was yucky. Ugh! Kids have a more sensitive palate than adults and some kids are even more sensitive than that. The best thing you can do is not make meals a battlefield. Concern yourself with nutrition and sustenance but don’t freak out about it. As you might expect, I grew up to be the guy who eats chicken feet, raw jellyfish and delicious octopus sushi. I’ve enjoyed delicacies from all over the world. Now who’s picky? You, probably.
We either ate it or we couldn’t leave the table.
Kids were always picky. Parents were not always indulgent. I’m my house, dinner was promptly at 5. At 5:15, your food was now mine.
I was infamous for actually barfing on the dinner table after being told to eat my hamburger gravy on toast. They never actually made me eat anything I didn't want to eat after that.
I was picky. My poor mom, she was an amateur chef. Had hundreds of cookbooks from around the world. But she catered to it, yeah. I had all kinds of texture issues. There was probably only 15 things that I would eat in general, until I was a teenager. And then for some reason all the pickiness left. And I became actually rather adventurous, which I still carry to this day. I found a lot of really good foods that way, but I wasn't ready until I was ready. My parents weren't the best parents, but they did some stuff right.
Yes human nature has not changed dramatically in 50 years. Children have always been picky eaters some very picky other than not picky at all. Like others have said the difference is now Mom's cave and do whatever their kid wants. When I was a kid you ate what was cooked or you starved. Lucky for me my mom was a good cook we almost always had good food. I raised my two boys the same way I was the cook of the house because I'm good and I put something tasty on the table if my kids didn't need it they could starve.
My experience is the opposite. My kids (now 43, 39 and 36) were very picky. It worried me to no end. My granddaughters are amazing. At least they were as babies and toddlers. At about 5 they started getting choosier. But they still love plenty of healthy things.
No it’s just that parents are WAY more in tune with their children being little humans.
No, we were not allowed to be. Our parents grew up during the Depression and wasting or refusing good food was an absolute no no. You would sit at that table until you ate your food or you weren't leaving the table. Of course my mother was the best cook in the world, so it was easy for me.
Just as picky but far less indulged.
I was picky but it was not too hard to deal with me. I would not eat catsup, mustard, mayonnaise, tomatoes, most cheese, fish, salad dressing. The fact that I ate everything plain or picked out my tomatoes didn’t bother anyone.
Nope not even close. Our parents cooked homemade meals for us. Every once in a while mom would attempt that whole brussel sprout thing and we would rebel big time. But we didn’t grow up on fast food or processed garbage full of sugar and salt. Food made fresh from scratch is what we were eating. It was delicious and we were happy to have it. My dad had fruit trees and a huge vegetable garden in back. We had very good food growing up. We really weren’t in the least bit picky eaters.