and my mother said it was like spending 40 days and nights with a bear with a toothache. She was always greatly relieved when Easter dinner would hit the table and he'd pour himself a very large straight bourbon.
While I can see the origins as very practical: dedicating the early spring to fasting and meditation (when food was scarce, anyway), we no longer live in the deprivation northern Europe had to withstand every spring, nothing left to eat but wilted cabbage and weevily grains, maybe some salt pork or fish that was just starting to go off. Might as well feel pious about privation.
I also see people doing some pretty positive things, like quitting smoking for the 40 days and having that turn into a permanent thing because they feel so much better. Or avoiding a favorite problem food and dropping some pounds they need to drop. I know just as many non Catholics who do the Lent thing in the hope of improving something about themselves.
But yes, when parents nag their kids about giving something up, it's not right. That sort of thing has to come from within and can't be forced by nagging or guilt. Parents are only incurring resentment from the kid. Add enough resentments up and you end up with a hostile ex Catholic when the kid turns 18.
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