Letters to My Friend - Until You Eat It

Psalm 34:8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. 

When my mom was a little girl she hated oatmeal porridge. Sometimes when she refused to eat it, her mother made her sit at the table until she had finished it. As I recall, on one occasion she was still sitting there when lunch time rolled around. I don't know when she finally did get it down, but it was a hard lesson for her.

My Gramma also taught her children to eat the things they didn't like first so that they could get them out of the way. This works pretty well, since once the serving of what you don't like is gone, you're free to enjoy the rest of your meal. It did backfire on my mom's youngest brother once when he was a little boy. He didn't like peas. He and his siblings were guests at someone's home without their parents being present, and they were served peas along with the rest of their dinner. My uncle ate his right down so quickly that the lady was impressed and, remarking that he really loved peas, she generously gave him another helping. Thankfully, his siblings spoke up and told her why he had gobbled his peas down. Being a very understanding and gracious lady, she told him he didn't have to eat the second helping, much to his relief.

Years later, when we were kids in our own home, I remember my mom putting food in the fridge that one of us had refused to eat. The offender was told they would have eat it at the next meal (probably before they got anything else). It seems like my sister might have pushed this through two meals once, but I don't remember clearly. Much of the time, however, we were made to eat the food one way or another.

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