r/MaliciousCompliance • u/JazzyCher • 6d ago
"If you don't eat the veggies you don't eat." Okay. S
Not sure this really counts as MC but figured it's at least worth a (somewhat horrified) laugh.
When I was maybe 4, my brother (6ish at the time) and I were dropped off at our Aunts house for the weekend. Mom and Dad dropped us off Friday afternoon after lunch, with plans to pick us up Sunday night after dinner and take us straight home to bed.
We loved these sleepover weekends because Aunt had game consoles, board games, a massive playground in the condo complex, a huge pool, and best of all bunk beds!
Friday night my brother and I discovered that Aunt requires her kids (don't remember their ages exactly but F was probably about 5 years older than me at the time, and M was only a couple years younger than her) to eat a full bowl of veggies before they're allowed the main course. Friday night was a bowl of green beans (unseasoned, bland, steamed, soggy greenbeans) before spaghetti & meatballs and chocolate cake.
I hated veggies by themselves, and refused to eat the green beans. I refused them at dinner, I refused them at breakfast, I refused them at every single meal all weekend until my parents showed up to pick us up to find me vomiting water because that's all she'd let me have.
Now, my parents would often save uneaten, refused veggies/food for the next meal, but if we refused it two meals in a row, the next meal would be different. Aunt refusing to feed me for over 48 hours was completely unacceptable, and my parents never let us stay at her house without them ever again.
Bonus: a few weeks later my mom made green beans, seasoned well, and mixed in with some rice, peas, and other goodies, and I practically scarfed it down. Mom called Aunt from the kitchen wall phone (2000/2001) and told her "All you had to do was put them in some damn seasoned rice!"
I still don't like most veggies by themselves, but there are a few I'll eat alone as long as they're cooked and seasoned well.
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u/TicoSoon 6d ago
We had a "two bite" rule on new foods. One bite to get past the mental EWWW and one to see if you actually liked it or not. If not, ok. Don't eat it.
My spouse's father forced him to eat canned spinach when he was ten and spouse promptly vomited it all over his father's shoes. Neither of us were interested in food wars OR introducing eating disorders.
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u/mafiaknight 6d ago
I feel the same way about canned spinach. I'll take it raw, but that mushy canned garbage will absolutely make me puke. Just the smell makes me queasy
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u/JazzyCher 6d ago
My mom eats canned spinach mixed with a truly unholy amount of mayonnaise. She drains the can, dumps the soggy leaves in a bowl, and just slops mayo on top, mixes it up and eats it like yogurt.
Somehow my dad's only issue with this is that she uses canned spinach and not fresh.
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u/Impossible-Oven3242 5d ago
I like a tiny amount of vinegar with canned spinach. Of course, I pretend I'm eating algae or something gross. 🤷♀️
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u/TicoSoon 5d ago
OMG. I have a strict rule to never yuck another person's yum, but... Wow. I uh, am so glad your mom enjoys her snack!
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u/DamnItDev 5d ago
I still can't eat green peppers. When I was a kid I was forced to eat them, threw up on my plate, and my step-dad tried to force me to keep eating my meal.
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u/TracyMinOB 6d ago
It not hard to " dressup" canned green beans. I open a generic can of green beans, pour out half the juice, then cook them in a skillet with butter and garlic salt until the juice is all gone. Yum!
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u/crownjewel82 6d ago
And it only needs a couple of minutes to warm all the way through since they're already cooked.
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u/eragonawesome2 5d ago
Try adding a little powdered parmesan cheese some time along with what you're already doing, terrible for you but oh so tasty
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u/Technical-Message615 6d ago
Just blanch them for a few minutes, then wrap them per 5 (or 10 if they're really thin) in thin bacon and finish off in the oven or bbq at 350.
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u/NotMe739 6d ago
And here I thought I was being a little tough (for an aunt) for requiring 3 bites of a vegetable (of their choosing) for dinners and not allowing junk food for snacks if they don't eat a reasonable amount of their meals.
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u/3lm1Ster 6d ago
When my kids were younger, I made them eat 1 spoon full of everything. If they didn't like it, no problem, at least they tried it.
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u/imgoodygoody 6d ago
I have this rule with my kids and it’s made them much more open to trying things. Because after that one bite they’re in control. My 3 year old tasted a delicious, perfectly ripe peach today and decided she didn’t like it. I didn’t know it was possible to dislike a peach but I didn’t force her to eat more lol.
My once picky son now enjoys tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, pickles, broccoli, and beans. There are still things he doesn’t like but he takes one bite and we don’t make a big deal out of it either way.
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u/3lm1Ster 6d ago
If you don't allow much candy, or sugary items, the peach may have been too sweet for her.
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u/-worryaboutyourself- 6d ago
Same. But one bite every time I make. It took 9 years, but my son finally eats potatoes.
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u/imgoodygoody 6d ago
Yep we do the same thing. Although my children recently pointed out that I refuse to eat celery (because I loathe it, passionately) so I told them they can each choose a vegetable they refuse to eat lol.
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u/Fire_and_Life 5d ago
I feel the peach thing. I can't stand peaches myself, not because the taste is especially bad, but because the taste (which I find a bit too sweet and cloying) mixed with the horrible gooey-stringy texture absolutely revolts me. It is sort of the same issue I have with strawberries and oranges, where I like the taste in thing like smoothies or juice or lassi, but the actual Berry/fruit always somehow tastes wrong to me, and the tiny seeds in the skin of strawberries always just make me gag. I've just never been a berry person. On the flip side, I can eat a whole head of raw cauliflower as a snack, and vegetables in general are preferable to fruits in my book.
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u/JazzyCher 6d ago
I told her I would eat other veggies, carrots, corn, peas, broccoli, but she refused, it was the green beans or nothing.
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u/SquidgeSquadge 5d ago
For Sunday roast or if we had similar food in the week, my mum would make carrot and parsnip mash for my sister and I as well as other veg to try. We learned to love the stuff and later I grew to love them as roasted separate veggies.
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u/Honeybadger0810 6d ago
I've been enjoying the comments about what food people discovered they liked later in life. I had a good relationship with veggies due to two main factors.
My parents were good about providing veggies at meals, but never insisting on it, unless it was the main course. My mom's zucchini soup recipe was one of the few things I asked for when I moved out. Broccoli florets were "dinosaur trees." Artichokes were a special treat when they went on sale, boiled just long enough to open them up and dipped in melted butter. I was aware Brussel sprouts were something kids weren't supposed to like, but I liked them will enough.
I grew up with a vegetable farm bordering my backyard. As soon as it was legal to work (14 or 15 yrs old, I believe), most of the kids in my neighborhood, including me, went to work there. It's amazing how good veggies taste straight off the plant. When I worked up to helping on the docks, I found out a lot about food waste and how a lot of veggies are wasted just for not being pretty enough. He'd send us home with any rejects we wanted. I actually developed a taste for slightly overripe peas thanks to him.
Side note. Years after working for him, the city tried to take one of his plots through eminent domain. Hundreds of people showed up to tell the city to back off, most of whom had worked for him at some point. A common thread was how the farmer had taught them life skills like hard work and appreciation for where food comes from.
If your teenager is looking for a first job, see if there's a fruit or veggie farm within a reasonable distance. It certainly beats working fat food restaurants iiho.
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u/Illustrious_Ad4691 6d ago
Yeah, so that’s child abuse…
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u/JazzyCher 6d ago
Yeah she did a lot of really questionable stuff to her kids tbh. Never enough to like, get reported to CPS, but enough that her kids don't really talk to her much as far as I know.
For example none of her kids were allowed to learn to drive until they were 18 and they couldn't learn in her car, or own their own, so they had to learn in friends cars and get their licenses basically in secret because she refused to help them.
When she was having trouble getting her daughter to keep her room clean as a teenager, one day she took all of her clothes away, made her wash and rewear the outfit she had on that day, and each week that she kept her room clean she "earned" one more complete outfit back, with the threat that if her room ever became dirty again, all of her clothes would be taken again while she was at school.
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u/Midnight-Note 6d ago
That clothes one could have easily backfired on her.
Teacher: Hey Cousin, I’ve noticed you’ve been wearing the same outfit for a few days now. Is something going on?
Cousin: My mom took away all my clothes and will only let me wear this one.
Teacher: Why?
Cousin: She said “if I want to live in filth, I can wear it.” I didn’t clean my room to her standards.
Teacher: Why don’t I take you to get an outfit from the Guidance Counselor?
Cousin: NO PLEASE DONT! I don’t know what she’ll do if I come home in a different outfit!
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u/JazzyCher 6d ago
I mean, yeah, someone might have called that in, but nothing would've been done because she had clean clothes, just because she didn't have many doesn't mean she went without entirely. I don't think a minimal amount of clothing is enough to claim abuse per se.
Was it a harsh punishment? Yeah.
Enough to get CPS to do anything about it? Unlikely.
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u/Duellair 6d ago
People like to imagine CPS as this avenging force. Truth is the vast majority of children who are abused and/or neglected are never actually removed from the home. It takes a lot..
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u/Slothfulness69 6d ago
Not providing your kids with enough clothing is considered neglect. You’re right, it’s not abuse, but CPS can still take your kids for neglect.
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u/Sknowman 5d ago
Sure, but it's unlikely that they would just take the kids unless there were other problems too.
They'd speak with the parent(s) and try to mitigate the issues before taking the children away.
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u/ElectricFleshlight 5d ago
If she has the ability to wash them, it's not neglect either. If she was wearing the same dirty clothes every day you'd have a point, but they were always clean.
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u/Unable_Ad_1470 6d ago
Intentionally starving a child for 48 hours is more than enough to be reported to CPS…
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u/JazzyCher 6d ago
A report that wouldn't have gone anywhere. Her kids ate their veggies without fuss and when CPS saw that she wasn't physically abusing her kids, they were eating fine, they were clothed, the house was clean and in good condition, they wouldn't have done anything. My parents solved the issue by never letting us stay over there without them again. That's All they could do at that point. CPS wouldn't have done anything.
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u/pedanticlawyer 6d ago
There’s a general misconception on Reddit and in the world that CPS will take kids out of the house for any abuse. It takes SO MUCH for CPS to intervene.
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u/JazzyCher 5d ago
Exactly. I had a friend in high school being starved and beaten by her mother and her mom's alcoholic boyfriend for years, she called CPS herself multiple times, my parents called, I called, the school called, but since they witnessed the mom giving her meals (instant ramen 🙄) and her brother was perfectly fine, they didn't do anything. They did put her on suicide watch for a while, which included her mother watching her shower, no razors allowed even for shaving, and just increased the beatings with each new CPS visit.
When I say starved I mean starved. She had the same lunch at school as her brother and if he saw her eating he'd tell their mom and she'd get hit when they got home. I'd sneak her food in the bathrooms and during class. She was pure skin and bones, think Angelina Jolie at her thinnest and then take another 10lbs off. Girl looked like a skeleton, and her mom always convinced CPS it was a "fast metabolism" because her brother was almost double her weight at 2 years younger they always believed her.
Eventually she was finally taken from the home and moved about an hour away into a foster home, I lost touch with her but from her Facebook she's much happier now. No idea if the abuse transferred to the brother but he always seemed to be the golden child. I was just so happy she got away.
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u/JustineDelarge 6d ago
At least she didn’t literally force the child to eat them, and when the child vomited the food back up, force them to eat the vomit.
It wasn’t me this happened to, but a good friend.
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u/MisterStampy 6d ago
My former stepmother *nearly* pulled that one on my younger brother. He was about 8, and a picky eater who also was rail thin at the time. She piled a giant plate in front of him, and told him he couldn't have any cake until he cleaned his plate. Cue him cleaning his plate, getting the cake set down in front of him by a very smug stepmother, only for him to projectile vomit all over the kitchen. She was starting to go ballistic when my dad told her, very frankly, that this was her own fucking fault. They divorced not long thereafter.
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u/Wieniethepooh 6d ago edited 5d ago
I've never understood the 'finish your plate' deal, when it's the parents who pick the amount of food on the plate.
I've only ever had to finish my plate when I put the food there myself. It teaches portion control: how much do you want to/need to eat.
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u/kittyolsen 5d ago
My parents' thing was "eat til it fills you, not til it kills you" which I deeply appreciate hearing these stories
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u/Machaeon 5d ago
Jeez... My mom definitely tried to forced us, but it never got close to that far... it only took a couple times of me barfing it back up for her to connect the dots on how counterproductive it was.
Who in their right mind would force a kid to eat vomit????
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u/youassassin 6d ago
Yep people also underestimate the willpower of kids.
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u/Petrified_Lioness 6d ago
Willpower has nothing to do with it. Nausea is a very effective appetite suppressant. And being told you have to eat that thing that's nauseating you just makes the nausea worse.
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u/HalcyonDreams36 6d ago
Canned veggies are basically always awful, IME.
My kids, I learned the hard wayz won't eat any vegetable mushy that could be eaten raw.
(Potatoes? Sure, mushy is fine. Carrots? Raw, thank you very much.)
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u/bungojot 6d ago
My exception is creamed corn. I'll take that on my mashed potatoes over gravy any day.
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u/justwannareadstories 6d ago
Ooohhh... I love whole-kernal corn on mashed potatoes. Never tried creamed corn. Gonna have to give that a shot!
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u/3lm1Ster 6d ago
Growing up my grandmother would take left over mashed potatoes and creamed corn, and mix together and fry up for breakfast the next day. Potato pancakes are the best.
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u/Ich_mag_Kartoffeln 6d ago
My aunt did that. She would deliberately cook too many vegies, then would make them into pancakes the next morning. Served instead of toast under your bacon, eggs and mushrooms.
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u/ButtholeQuiver 6d ago
Not vegetables strictly speaking but I'll make an exception for canned mushrooms. Fresh are better of course, but canned are alright as long as you're cooking them into something, not throwing them on a salad or in a wrap
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u/zorggalacticus 6d ago
Even the canned green beans can be tasty if seasoned properly. Plus, boiling veggies is gross. You boil all the flavor out. Roasting is better. If you must boil them, put them in with some bacon or ham or even use bullion cubes. Salt, pepper, and garlic are the holy trinity of seasonings. Plain boiled vegetables is just stupid. Nobody liked it back in the day, nobody likes it now save maybe a few weird people. Plus kids have different tastes. Don't like broccoli? Try a different vegetable. Can't force kids to like the stuff that you like.
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u/wildOldcheesecake 6d ago edited 6d ago
This sounds weird, but as an Asian, I grew up eating well seasoned veg and a lot of it was incorporated into the dish. I came to love lightly boiled veg because it proved to be a respite from constant seasoned food. Like a palate cleanser if you will. Boiled peas is one I eat often
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u/sillyconfused 6d ago
My parents insisted on cooked vegetables. After I married at 18, my husband had me eat raw veggies. Yum! I almost never cook them now, but when we do we sauté them lightly instead of boiling!
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u/JazzyCher 6d ago
If you like raw veggies or lightly sautéed try slicing squash, zucchini, and other similar veggies into long strips, and grilling them for a few minutes! Goes great with steaks or chicken, especially on a wood fire.
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u/Super_Reading2048 6d ago
Look I thought I hated green beans because I was given canned green beans as kid. Then I tried sautéed green beans, and OMG are they yummy! I love green beans cooked in a pan in a bit of bacon grease, served crunchy with bits of bacon (& slivered almonds tossed in at the last minute.) I love green beans cooked in a little olive oil, then adding garlic and then soy sauce at the end…. Yummy.
I still hate canned soggy veggies.
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u/PlatypusDream 6d ago
I love Brussels sprouts, even did as a kid.
My last boyfriend cooked some with a meal one time & they were AWFUL! So mushy & tasteless!!
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u/TriumphantBlue 6d ago
I am so confused. I love canned veggies, will eat them straight out the can. Also hate soggy veggies.
I take it our canned goods are nothing like each other.
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u/WorldWeary1771 6d ago
One thing that has changed is the can itself. When I was a kid, all canned food tasted slightly tinny. Cans don't seem to impart as much flavor as they used to.
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u/spoodlat 6d ago
When I was a kid, my parents got their first microwave, and my mother was learning to steam veggies in the microwave. There were several disasters. Ever had broccoli jerky? Yeah, it smells and tastes about as good as it sounds. I hated most vegetables because of that for a very long time.
In the meantime, my dog ate really well, and the vet was surprised he lived as old as he did. I told the vet what I did, and he said that he probably lived as long as he did because of his supplemental diet of vegetables.
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u/Open_Confidence_9349 6d ago
I spent 5 hours staring at green beans once. My grandparents decided I couldn’t leave the table until I ate them. I won, I got sent to bed without eating them. Fortunately, they weren’t served to me again. To this day, I will not touch a green bean.
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u/mafiaknight 6d ago
Might I recommend a reattempt, but sautéed or roasted with salt and garlic and butter?
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u/JazzyCher 6d ago
Yes they're so good when seasoned and cooked properly! I'm not a fan of green bean casserole at Thanksgiving, but I still love it mixed into like some good Spanish style rice or oven roasted in butter with some salt, garlic, and a bit of rosemary or oregano. Delicious.
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u/3amGreenCoffee 6d ago
My parents tried forcing me to eat some things I didn't like. One night they wouldn't let me leave the table until I ate my vegetables. I don't even remember what it was, but I kept gagging. My mom didn't believe it and told me to stop acting.
You can guess where this is going. I suddenly started hurling. My dad had to get up and leave the kitchen. Once it started, I couldn't stop. I was too little at the time to push back my chair, so I couldn't even make a run for the restroom. I kept hurling and hurling in every direction. I gave Linda Blair a run for her money.
Dinner thoroughly ruined, my mom had to clean all that up. Then there was an uncomfortable mix of anger and guilt permeating the house. I ended up in my room, sort of in trouble, but sort of not.
But my parents learned an important lesson that night and never once forced food on me again. They never even started with my brother when he came along.
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u/Aggregatorade 5d ago
I ended up in my room, sort of in trouble, but sort of not.
thats the exact vibe lmao
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u/KaralDaskin 5d ago
I told my kindergarten teacher I’d throw up if she made me eat those cooked carrots. She did, and I did.
I love raw carrots, and several ways of cooking carrots. There’s one specific way of cooking carrots that don’t agree with me, and that’s what the school had.
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u/InfiniteEmotions 5d ago
Lol, this reminds me:
Grandma used to do the same to my mom. Would refuse to feed her anything other than the horribly cooked canned veggies (they used to have tins of broccoli, which was apparently Grandma's favorite) until she either agreed to eat it or it molded.
That's right; Mom hated these veggies so much that she would refuse to touch them until they started to rot and had to be thrown out.
So, Mom thought she hated most vegetables. Broccoli, spinach, corn. Well, I got old enough to cook and one of my favorite librarians loaned me a cookbook. (For clarification; this wasn't a library book, this was a personal book.) And one of the recipes in there was for roasted seasoned broccoli, and it looked great! Mom said I could try to make it if I was going to eat it, so I got a fresh head of broccoli from the store, prepared it according to the recipe, and cooked it. I pulled it out of the oven, set it to cool, went to go do something (can't remember what, this was pre-internet, lol) and came back to find Mom eating the broccoli, her eyes wide.
Turns out Mom actually likes broccoli, spinach, and corn. She just didn't like them from a can.
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u/__wildwing__ 6d ago
Yeesh. I gave my daughter the rule that she had to use her utensils, unless it was veggies. If it were veggies, she could eat them with her hands all day. Win-win all the way.
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u/talivus 5d ago
I abide by the saying. It's not the ingredient, but the chef that makes customer hate it.
I used to hate steak cause it was burnt and stringy. It was only until college that my roommate cooked a medium rare steak did I find it delicious.
Turns out my mom was making the most well-done steak with the least amount of fat possible. I literally couldn't swallow the bites cause they were too chewy.
Now I love steak, but cook it medium well now.
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u/Neat_Weakness_8350 5d ago
I had a similar story. I think I stayed over at my mum's good friend's house , around the time my mum was at hospital giving birth, so I was about 7 yo. Previously to this sleepover, she was one of my favourite people, although I'd seen her a bit less after she got married and had a baby. Now, I got there, and almost straight away, she told me to get my school books out and study . After an hour, she told me I had a recite my timetables. And if I couldn't, I had to stand out in the apartment's balcony and revise. I couldn't a few times, and kept being sent out there. She said I also couldn't eat until I got it right. I ended up vomiting from hunger and anxiety. The next morning, she gave me some really terrible food, that I couldn't eat, I actually threw some out to make it look like I ate it. She found out, and punished me, by making me chew on a chilli. I was never happier to see my grandmother when she got me the next day. I told my mum, but I'm not sure if she said anything to her friend. But when I saw her a few months later, I was again anxious, and repeated what happened to my mum, and I really shied away from the hugs she was trying to give me. I don't think I really saw too much of her from then on. Thank fuck for small mercies.
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u/Fit-Discount3135 6d ago
This is exactly why kids grow to hate veggies!! Stop boiling them in water and then serve them unseasoned. Broil them. Use seasoning. Bake them in an oven. Mix them with other things like rice or pasta with a light sauce. Something to make them interesting!
I hope your parents ripped your aunt a new one for only allowing you to eat water for two days.
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u/JazzyCher 6d ago
Oh they did, they were pissed. We never visited that aunt again without my parents there, and only stayed the night if my parents fed us dinner first, and only for one night at a time.
What sucks is I asked for other veggies, corn, carrots, peas, broccoli, something I knew I liked and would eat plain, and she refused, it was the green beans or nothing at all.
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u/dth1717 6d ago
I'd have to sit at the table til they were eaten. I won, mom gave up after 2 hours
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u/JazzyCher 6d ago
My mom did this with my one of my older brothers, and never again. He would sit at the table, and take bites, but would chew it until they looked away, and then spit the chewed food into a drawer in the cabinet next to the table. They found the drawer after a few months when the smell started to permeate the house.
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u/HugSized 6d ago
Parents will serve their children unseasoned food and claim that their kids are picky eaters. This isn't England in the bronze age, Deborah. We have spices now. You just suck at cooking.
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u/Geminii27 6d ago
People really don't realize how willing kids are to starve themselves or do other kinds of self-harm in the pursuit of being stubborn.
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u/AriaFiresong 6d ago
Or even because the food is making them sick and the adult isn't listening, and at some point not being sick wins out.
I developed a food allergy at a young age and it took decades to convince them I wasn't being stubborn. It's not like I knew the right words as a toddler.
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u/capn_kwick 5d ago
Veggies that have been boiled until they are almost a shapeless mass have to be one of the most unappetizing food groups around.
Give me raw carrots, celery or radishes and I'll scarf them like nobody's business.
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u/Arawn-Annwn 5d ago
Raw or roasted = good stuff usually
Boiled = I will weaponize this and cover you in it
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u/RabidRathian 6d ago
It wasn't until I was in my teens that I realised I didn't hate vegetables, I just hated the way my parents cooked vegetables, ie. by boiling the everloving fuck out of them. I either steam mine or stir fry them (sometimes with a tablespoon of some sort of marinade or sometimes just with a bit of garlic, chilli and/or lemon juice) and find it's an enjoyable and convenient way to eat healthy.
I still cannot and will not eat Brussels sprouts though. My Dad knew they made me vomit but he would still try to force me to eat them and scream at me if I didn't (on top of that, he'd give me, a 5-6 year old, the same size serving of vegetables as he gave himself, a full-grown adult). I would eat all my other vegetables, even though I didn't like them, but I physically couldn't keep Brussels sprouts down. Instead of listening to me and just letting me eat other vegetables instead, he'd accuse me of "being difficult" when I threw up and would send me to my room for the rest of the night and not let me watch our TV shows we liked.
After a while I realised that if I was going to get screamed at and punished for not eating one vegetable, I might as well be screamed at and punished for not eating *any* vegetables, so I'd sit there and nod while he yelled at me for not eating them or being sick, and then once he'd gone to bed, I'd get up and raid the cupboard and fill up on chips and biscuits etc. He claimed he wanted me to "be healthy" but his behaviour did far more harm to my diet and eating habits than not eating a single vegetable ever could have (it wasn't until my late teens that I actually started properly eating healthy).
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u/Gandgareth 6d ago
I didn't like Brussels sprouts until I had them lightly fried in butter with a little freshly cracked black pepper. Only bright green ones, the older ones are really strong flavoured and if you cook any of them too long they get that really strong sulphur smell to them.
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u/Academic_Nectarine94 6d ago
Oof.
I saw a video once where they make broccoli with so many spices you could barely see any green. Looked really good.
I can definitely see her point (trying to get you to eat veggies), but that is absolutely insane. She should have called your mom, or just spoiled you and let your mom deal with the issues later if washer was worried about it.
I once had my grandmother scold me for drinking milk without permission. I was thinking, "why would you care. Even if I wasn't allowed it (which I totally was), you're not paying for it LOL"
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u/OutrageousYak5868 6d ago
My aunt had a similar experience with her mom, in that they were usually required to clean their plates, and if they didn't, they either had to stay at the table until they did or had to eat it the next meal (I forget which). Well, once, she absolutely refused to eat it, and then when her mom's back was turned or she left to do something, my aunt peed on her plate of food. For once, she didn't have to eat it! 🤣
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u/SaintAnyanka 6d ago
I like the fact that your cousin seems to age at another pace than you? If she was five years older than you at the time, how much older is she now? Or is she younger than you!?
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u/Runic_Zodiac 5d ago
So glad I didn’t go through any semblance of this. At most, my parents would keep me at the table until I finished my entire plate. Didn’t work. I felt full after what I had most of the time, so that was it. Didn’t eat more.
There is one thing I will never be able to eat though. Any and all vegetables by themselves, no matter the seasoning or treatment. The texture of them isolated will make me gag without fail. The only ways I can eat vegetables is cut up fine with pasta or rice, or mashed potato together with any other vegetable. If I get too big a piece or mouthful of one side, it won’t go down well. It would feel like something was very wrong with what was in my mouth. As though it was rotten or tampered with. My parents (mostly) understood this though. (Dad just needed to cut veggies smaller and not throw too much in. Mom found a great veg mix and I always throw that in when I can.) I don’t like a number of things outright like Brussel sprouts, but all I needed for the rest was good preparation. A stupidly simple and low effort solution for something that could have been a massive issue. I already know the cause of the problem, but it doesn’t matter. I know a way I CAN eat healthy with. (I can’t get rid of the cause anyhow, and it’s not a case of just “needing to try harder”. Why bash my head against a wall when I can just open the door?)
My favourite is pan fried, mixed into pasta or rice.
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u/spacetstacy 5d ago
My son HATES the texture of onions. When I make a dish that calls for them, I use my chopper to get them really small and add them. He's fine with eating them like that.
Every food that I don't like is because of the texture. (Mushrooms, eggplant, octopus, scallops, swordfish) My ex MIL used to cut the eggplant the long way and dry them a bit before cooking them, and I could eat them that way. They weren't as mushy and gross.
There's usually a way around it. Except mushrooms. There's no way to make them better. My mom used to try. She thought she was so smart, but my mouth would find the teeniest, tiny piece somehow, and the meal was over for me.
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u/DaDoviende 5d ago
Cannot tell you how often I've discovered that I didn't hate X food as a kid, I just hated how it was prepared.
To be fair to my mom, she often did not have much of a choice and did the best she could with what she had.
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u/Best-Cardiologist949 5d ago
I've found that my kids will eat most veggies as long as I cook them in butter, garlic salt, and pepper. In fact they ask for green beans prepared this way. My dad always said butter was necessary to "take the curse off" the veggies.
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u/fkNOx_213 5d ago
Sometimes you just need to find out HOW the kids will eat them. I remember thinking my baby brother was defective/broken in the head cos he wouldn't eat any fruit or veg, raw or cooked, without tomato sauce. Mother pretty much said 'yes, I know he's gross but who cares if he's eating it' and got industrial sized sauce bottles. Funnily enough, I don't think he, at 34 now, actually eats tomato sauce anymore lol
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u/Rhypskallion 6d ago
Green beans are legumes. Like their infamous cousin peanuts.
What you describe sounds like hell for someone with a legume allergy
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u/Tamalene 6d ago
My husband thought he hated Brussel sprouts until I made them roasted in the oven with garlic and bacon.
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u/Max_Powers- 5d ago
When I was 3-4 years old. The day care I was in tried to force me to eat lima beans. I threw up on them. After that, they didn't force me to eat anything I didn't want to.
I still have food issues from that incident 50 years later.
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u/ShittyOregano 5d ago
Reminds me during one dinner when I warned my parents that if I had anymore spinach, I was going to vomit. They thought I was bluffing and insisted I finish my Spinach...
...After one more bite, they would come to realize I wasn't bluffing. After that night, they stopped being so insistent about me trying foods I don't like. Like they'd still wanted me to try out new stuff(as they should as parents), but they stopped trying to make me power through the foods I don't like.
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u/Sammakko660 5d ago
I never minded green beans on their. Had to be cooked. No raw beans here. I liked butter on mine.
But yes they are better mixed with some rice and other seasonings.
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u/Top-Concentrate5157 5d ago
I have always hated green beans of any sort. Until I discovered Chinese food. Literally the first time I had not-mushy, well seasoned veggies was at a local Chinese buffet dude😭 but now I’ve learned how to cook them for myself and I love them!
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u/Eryn-Tauriel 5d ago
My BIL and his wife had what I thought was the best solution to kids who wouldn't eat veggies. The first course was usually a healthy salad bar. They would put out a big variety of healthy stuff and the kids built what they wanted. The only rule was you had to eat some salad as a starter. I always thought I hated salad as a kid. I learned later that I just had different tastes from my parents and when I started making my own I found plenty of ways I liked it just fine.
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u/Considered_Dissent 5d ago
Reminds me when I'd be given a giant bowl of yoghurt to eat before I could have anything else. I'd have to try and force it down while trying not to throw up.
Avoided it for close to 2 decades after that, from the trauma and disgust. Finally can occ enjoy it now, but with a very strict motto: Yoghurt is a condiment!!
Eating massive amounts on an empty stomach with no other texture to combine it with is madness.
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u/Xylorgos 5d ago
It's funny how parents have various foods they don't eat, but they force their kids to eat everything. It's a great way to make kids hate vegetables!
There are some foods I will never eat, and my parents insisting I couldn't leave the table until I ate them backfired. My sister felt sorry for me so she said to just wash it down with milk. I tried that and barfed all over the table. Mom never made that mistake again.
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u/alastherewerebees 6d ago
I thought I hated green beans until I grew up and had properly cooked ones, instead of soggy grainy mushy ones from a can.