Were You Pressured to Eat as a Kid?

I sometimes run a 'Raising Embodied Eaters' workshop for parents/carers, and right at the beginning I get them to reflect on their own relationship with food growing up. There are a lot of directions to take that, but one question that I want parents/carers to consider is whether there were any foods they were pressured to eat as a kid?

The answer is almost always yes.

Which then raises the question: how is your relationship with that food now?

This varies. For some folks they can't even look at that food (usually a vegetable). For others, it's taken them a really long time to make peace with it. they've had to figure out how to cook it, how to season it, and learn how to enjoy it on their own terms.

In this week's essay I used the show Bluey as a lens to show the impacts pressure can have - even when it's well intentioned and dressed up as fun, or even praise. Then there's pressure that's actually kind of gross and insidious: people pleasing.

Of course, a lot of pressure comes from a place of worry and concerns for kids' nutrition. AND I think it's important for us to talk about how these techniques can backfire and make things more stressful for everyone.

So, I'd love to hear from you - what's your experience of pressure to eat growing up? Is there a specific food that stands out in your mind? Or a meal? Was it a certain number of bites before you were allowed to leave the table or get dessert? Was it pressure at home, at school, or grandma's house? Were you praised for eating the 'right' foods, or guilted into eating them? Was food scare, leading the grownups around you to push more then you wanted?

And how is your relationship with those foods now? Are there foods that make you gag just at the thought of them (mince and tatties - boak). Or have you figured out ways to make them that you enjoy?

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