How many people grew up with...?

I didn't, but I did grow up with, if you want seconds, you need to finish what's on your plate...not that that's more helpful..just forced you to eat the meat and veggies...not just the carbs.

If it's 'buffet' style or 'family' style serving I still believe in eating everything on your plate, because you put it there, and you should learn not to take too much and waste the food later.

We are a BIG 'leftovers' family, I hate waste. If you can't finish it have it for lunch tomorrow, just don't you dare throw it away.

Oh yeah I remember sitting at the table for an hour after everyone else was done because my mom said I had to finish everything before I could go. I notice now my husband will tell me while we are eating dinner and he can see me struggling to finish that if I am full stop eating, but it was drilled into my head to finish everything on my plate. Whether it's related to me being overweight or not I won't be doing that with my kids.

Oh yeah I remember sitting at the table for an hour after everyone else was done because my mom said I had to finish everything before I could go. I notice now my husband will tell me while we are eating dinner and he can see me struggling to finish that if I am full stop eating, but it was drilled into my head to finish everything on my plate. Whether it's related to me being overweight or not I won't be doing that with my kids.

What she said!
I sat at the table until bed time.

No, I always just did it. I still do haha. Just gotta make sure you don't have too much on your plate to begin with.

Yes! I think you're on to something..

" Clean your plate, or no desert."

It started off that way. Then it was more of a negotiation tactic and I had to eat a certain number of bites and I always ate one extra to please my mother. Even so, there was always a level of guilt hanging over my head. I guess you could say, in a way my mother was a hoarder. Now I feel bad if I don't eat everything, but mostly because our funds don't stretch that far. My husband and I now have learned to share meals when we go out and make just enough at home..

"Eat all of your food. Don't you know there are children starving in Africa?!"
So gorging yourself on extra buttery mashed potatoes, fried chicken and sugary carrots was really an act of humanity. Plus you got desert afterward. Charity and a sugary chocolate confection, it is a win win scenario!

No, I always just did it. I still do haha. Just gotta make sure you don't have too much on your plate to begin with.

This. I think that if you put it there, you should eat it, if not then, at another meal. So this is a good time to teach kids, and ourselves, not to dish up more than they are able and willing to eat.

Yes! I think you're on to something..

" Clean your plate, or no desert."

I hate this. That teaches children that veggies (or whatever they have left that they dont want to eat) is something unpleasant and dessert is the reward for doing it. It also teaches them that they may need to eat past the point of being comfortably full in and again, they will be rewarded. If dessert was a given and not a reward, they would stop caring so much about it and it would not be this magnificant thing. Let's not teach our kids that desserts are wonderful prizes.

I was one of the lucky ones that was never told that. But thats because my mom was forced to sit at the table and finish her peas as a child and its something shes never forgotten and she still can't eat canned peas.

We don't tell our kids to finish what is on their plates either. We do tell them they have to eat X number of bites before they can have seconds though. My oldest would live off of salad/veggies if we let her, so before she can have more salad she has to have a few bits of chicken/steak/pork chop etc. My middle child would live off of meat, so she has to have a few bites of fruit (no way shes eating a veggies, not for lack of us trying) before she gets more meat.

We do have a few rules, the kids eat what we cook. I try and make meals everyone likes, but with 5 people its impossible to please everyone all the time. We also have set meal/snack times and if they don't eat their meal, they don't eat again until snack time.

I remember being told to finish everything on my plate, but that usually wasn't a problem for me because I loved everything my mother cooked! Except that dreaded Spanish rice with chicken. She called it horsefeathers. Ugh!!! To this day, I cannot STAND any kind of Spanish rice dish. In a Mexican restaurant, I tell them leave off the rice and give me more beans! lol

When I was a new mother, I used to make my son clean his plate and it was always a battle. I learned that it just doesn't work and can have lasting repercussions. So with my younger children, I try not to do that. I put some of everything we are having. I also tell them they need to take at least one bite of everything. We call this a "no, thank you bite." Something they learned in preschool.

Dessert is trickier. I try not to make dessert every night. Sometimes dessert can be a piece of fruit or even a small bowl of cereal. Only every once in a while is it something like ice cream or brownies. Usually it's the fruit, or applesauce, or cereal.

When we go to a buffet restaurant (we hardly ever do this anymore), I tell them that if they put it on their plate they have to at least take one bite. Hence, the "no, thank you" bite.

All in all, I think we do ok now. There are no battles at the dinner table. I prefer the harmony to the chaos anyday. :bigsmile:

i didn't but i did grow up with chinese take out, pizza and kfc every single night...which most likely explains the predicament i am in now! ;-)

Gotta love the depression era upbringing. They grew up without enough, so they hated to see anything get wasted. We were promised ice cream if we cleaned our plates at my grandfather's house! Nothing like bribing a kid with junk food to eat their real food.

I did, but then we were very active kids. We left in the morning after cartoons and some cereal and didn't go back inside until lunch and then we would leave and be back at dinner time and then out again until dark. Not only that but we were pretty poor and there were to many mouths to feed for a single mom at the time, so our plates were not always filled.

So, we ate everything on our plates because we couldn't know for sure if the next plate would be.

Take as much as you want, but eat what you take.

I think I was pretty fortunate I guess, my parents didnt force me to eat what I didnt want to. But I am far from a picky eater there was never a food I "disliked" I pretty much ate anything and everything.