Clean Your Plate Club

[xxtac66]

YES I am a member of the clean plate club....and I had to sit there until my plate was clean no matter how long it took. My mother is obese, my older brother has to have his wife monitor his intake, and I am obese. My children are NOT required to gorge themselves and have become more aware of their own choices since I've had to change my lifestyle.

[oliviafoster2008]

Hey AngelMaria, even I do remember my parents pushing for the last bite that remained in my plate. Wow many old memories getting refreshed again. Thanks for writing on this topic.

[pack89]

I grew up the same way, and when my oldest 2 were little, my husband did that to them. I finally convinced him to stop. Instead, I kind of went with the "you're 6yo, you get 6 bites" as well. I figured that if they were still hungry, I would get them more, than to force them to eat too much. Now my 8yo, she wants to eat just a few bites and then like 15 min later have a snack. Well, that's not gonna work!! If I've only given her like 8 small bites of meat, those have to be eaten first before she gets a snack. She doesn't have to eat all her sides, but she does have to eat her protein before she eats any junk.

[Trustin Sleever]

Not only did I have to clean my plate, but I had to do it FAST because my mother had a countdown! YES, she would put an adult-sized meal in front of me (as a TODDLER) and beat me ferociously if I didn't finish when she did. She would literally start counting down from 10 then begin beating me. She was a horrible, horrible woman.

[Guest-BGT]

While I wish I could blame my parents, I can't. We were taught to build our plates with what we could eat, yes we all made our best efforts to clean our plates, but not a hard house rule. I personally despise food waste and cannot stand to see people pile on everything on their plates only to just stare at it in the end, just wrong. I hate waste due to starving people here in my hometown let alone (insert country here) places.

So I shall blame McDonalds for now and accept it's my fault maybe later today ...yeah...

[SECRETSLEEVE]

I grew up and was pushed to finish everything. At breakfast I would have to drink a full glass of milk and a full glass of orange juice, cereal and eggs and fruit, and other things just for one meal. Even when I was full I was harrased into eating EVERTHING and this same family member was also the one who would constantly tell me I need to lose weight at the age of 8.

[angelamarie]

Then it it was I had to sit at the table until I ate whatever it was. I remember several times sitting at the table until bedtime in a battle of the wills with my parents. Hmmmmm.......maybe that is why I am fat AND stubborn! LOL! I wish with all this talk about childhood obesity they would focus on this part too.

[marilynlw]

Ouch, that's twice today my feelings get hurt. Must be having a sensitive day. As a witch, it hurts to have people slur my religion.

I'm sure the slur wasn't intentional the word was just misspelled and should have started with a B

[B-rizzle]

You damn skippy! There were plenty of starving children in China.

And how me eating everything on my plate helped any of them is beyond me. I always suggested they ship the brussel sprouts, peas, and carrots to them if they were so damn hungry. lol

[Karen1]

I used to clean my plate up

[Karen1]

Unfortunately, it was a big one.

[pieganjane]

As a kid no one ever told me to clean my plate and yet I became very fat. One of my skinny friends still hoovers up everything I leave on my plate when we eat together. Even pre-sleeve she was horrified that I ate a bit of this and a bit of that and never cleaned my plate. Basically I ate all day long so my appetite was always almost satisfied, yet I kept up a steady stream of calories. To this day I get uncomfortable when a waitress comments that I didn't eat much and asks if "everything was ok"...Now I can blame it on the sleeve while before there was nothing I could say to explain it away.

[Fatfloydfan]

I let my kids choose their food (vegetables, fruit and meat) my son is obsessed with green but won't eat anything white (pasta, bread, rice, chicken) but will eat lamp, sausages and salmon.
My daughter loves pastas, carrots and nothing green.
I told her that broccoli makes her cheeks pink and her hair shiny and she now eats them lol she's 6

[WayLessInNH]

I agree with the prior posting about letting her learn to cook. I would also encourage here to go grocery shopping with you so she can pick out what she would like to cook, with your help and wisdom of course.