Parents, Do You Make Your Children Finish Their Plates?
Question by Spunky: Parents, Do you make your children finish their plates?
Hello all,
I am doing a project for a psychology class, concerning the correlation of children’s eating habits to eating disorders. This is a two part question, so feel free to answer both parts, or one part. This isn’t the only way I am gathering results or researching.
Part one:
Do you make your children finish their plates? Why or why not?
As a child, were you made to finish your plate or not? How do you think that effected your adult eating habits and weight?
If you aren’t a parent and wish to answer, what are your thoughts on both?
Part 2
If you are an adult who was made to finish their plates, and have an eating disorder, do you think you’re eating disorder was brought on by your childhood eating rules?
Note, that the term “eating disorder” is used loosely in this case. It can mean being anorexic, or having bulimia, or the other extreme of being obese and unhealthy.
In this case, eating disorder can also mean, you cannot stand to have food wasted, or even as an adult, you feel that you still MUST finish your plate.
Do you struggle with your weight? Being too heavy or too light?
I will give you my analysis as an example.
I have always been a fairly light and picky eater. I also do not care for meat very much. My mum never forced me to eat more than one bite of each item at any meal. Though, if I didn’t eat at least half of my meal, I wasn’t allowed desserts. She was always more concerned about fruit and veggies than meat.
Knowing that I was a light eater, my mum had a “snack shelf” in the fridge. It was always full of bags of baby carrots, cut up celery, broccoli, apples, grapes, cantaloupe, peaches and all sorts of raw veggies and fruits. As well as milk, and cold water. I could go in the fridge at any time and grab a bag to nibble on.
Because my eating habits have always been pretty good, even as a teenager, my mum never forced me to eat. If I didn’t want what she made for dinner, I was allowed to make myself something else, because she knew I wouldn’t just have junk.
As an adult, I am still a light eater, and often just nibble of raw veggies and fruit throughout the day, and usually keep my meals fairly light. I drink a lot of water, and don’t particularly like junk food. I am a healthy weight, and active.
Parents, tell me your rules on eating! Add as much or as little detail as you wish!
Please and Thank you!
Thanks for the answers so far!
I forgot to ask for you to put your age and gender. So, if you don’t mind, it would be appreciated.
Best answer:
Answer by Wendy
i am the eldest of three and have always been competitive, if i didn’t eat it my brother and sister would. my father encouraged it and i was never punished for not finnishing and food is a lot more of a joy for me. i do however have trouble restraining my self from food.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
Young children with EDs, you can help? – The number of young children with bad eating patterns is growing and it is depressing. You can help your young family members I believe.
More Child Eating Disorders Information…