I thought I was a genius kid.

[grumpyduck]

Older generation... we were expected to eat what Mom put on the plate... no questions asked. My Mom was a really good cook and I generally liked what she served, but now and then I just didn't like something. So I came up with a brilliant idea: I would eat what I didn't like first, as in scarf it up, and then take my time with everything else. Worked like a charm for a while.

Until one day when an aunt came to visit. There was something I really didn't care for, so I scarfed it up. My aunt saw this, said, wow, look how much he likes it, and dropped a huge spoonful of whatever-it-was on my plate. My nine-year-old image of myself as a genius was shattered. Back to the drawing board.

This post was inspired by a piece on Huffpost about what not to say to your kids at dinner time.

[Different Drummer]

1. I did the same thing you did about eating what you don't like first.

I have what some might think of as being a weird eating habit in my adulthood. I only eat one thing at a time. I have a cousin who does that, too. I've always thought it was a family trait. She didn't pick it up from me because we rarely saw each other when she was growing up (I'm 21 years her senior).

[rsdsharp]

2. My older sister did that. She also refused to have any food touch any other type of food.

Then she would eat one thing at a time, before moving to the next thing. For a while, she would refill her plate with what she had just eaten before moving on. That would result in her having a full plate when she had finished eating.

Mom put a rather quick end to that.

[Laffy Kat]

5. I'm sixty-five and I still don' t like my food to touch.

Never grew out of it.

[wnylib]

3. I hated peas. So, I mixed them into my

mashed potatoes and gravy.

I also hated lima beans. Fortunately, my father also didn't like them. So when my mother pushed for me to eat them, my father said, "Let it go. Not my favorites, either."

[debm55]

9. I did that too! I hated mixed vegetables, Lifted the mashed potatoes up and hid them underneath.

Some places call it succotash-green beans,carrots, peas, corn and lima beans, Yuk. I placed my paper napkin over them, scoop them up and hold on to the napkin until I threw it away with the other stuff on my plate.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

4. In my family we each took up our own plate,

we had to take at least one spoon full of every thing, and had to clean our plates. There was very little I didn't like.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. When I had two kids at home,

I NEVER made them eat what I cooked. If they didn't like it, no big deal. They could have cereal or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I had a very unpleasant experience as a child being forced to eat something I did not like and I vowed I would NEVER do that to a child of mine.

[localroger]

7. To this day my father is so strongly indoctrinated that he can't not clean a plate

At the age of 79 I watched him carefully stuff a 16 ounce gourmet hamburger and the sides down. I didn't mean for him to do that, I knew the place served a lot of food, but he couldn't not do it. Fortunately it didn't hurt him.

Having been pushed over the edge at some point I'm just the opposite now. If I don't like it or want it I won't eat it. It will go into the garbage or a box for later if I think that's worthwhile. My wife has had to get used to that to the point where we don't often eat together any more because I think she knows, but doesn't want to admit to herself, where the stuff from the crock pot goes.

[LudwigPastorius]

8. I tried 'em all, as a kid.

Hide the liver under the baked potato skin. Feed it to the cat. Fling into a potted plant when mom, hopefully, wasn't looking.

They never worked.

[debm55]

10. Ludwig, I hated liver and onions. When my mom cooked it the smell would linger for days.

Everything had to be well done so you didn't catch parasites or whatever. Someone gave me a recipe for a German version of liver.But i was too afraid to try. Also, wondered why in the heck people would go out and order liver and onions at a restaurant.

[LudwigPastorius]

11. I haven't eaten liver since I moved out of my parents' house 40 years ago.

...and, I never will. HA! One of the perks of being an adult.

[debm55]

12. I haven't eaten it for 50 years, I would gag at the table. I don't know it was the liver, the smell

of liver or the way she prepared it. Heck, she would wash lettuce in hot water to get rid of the parasites, But butter was never put in the frig.JFC