Hellobee Boards

@pelikila: What about say...a 5 year old who is a picky eater?

Like...she has no problems eating cake or cereal or things she likes by herself at 5 (of course), but when it comes to "real food", her mom kind of chases her around with a spoon to get her to eat, and then half the time she just spits it back out. And then the mom chases some more. They don't eat at a table sitting down usually.

@Weagle: @pelikila: Okay, what you ladies are talking about is how I was raised. My parents weren't super forecful about say.."cleaning my plate" and they didn't force me to eat the vegetables I didn't like...

BUT my mom only cooked one meal for the whole family and we ate what we could/wanted from that meal and we weren't allowed to get out other food. And we all sat at the table, every night. We had to be excused from the table. There were times when my mom made things I didn't like (her version of "stir fry" for example) and I would make my dinner out of white rice and some of the chicken picked out from among the vegetables I didn't like.

Now I like all of those veggies--snow peas, carrots, etc.

But I've had some experiences lately that have been making me wonder if this is an "american" or "western" parenting thing. I have some friends (and family!) from other non-western countries and their child-feeding culture is just so...different.

Like...feeding a child until they are *very old* (in my American opinion) is not abnormal to them. And I don't mean breastfeeding...I mean, picking food up and placing it in their mouths seems to be normal up until the kids are 6,7,8.

I probably should have made this Gold so I can go into more detail!~ Let's just say...lately, I have made some comments about this style of feeding to my husband along the lines of "that's not what I'll be doing with our LO" and he totally doesn't get it. Like, he thinks it's fine to still be feeding a kid who is already in school, if the child is a picky eater and won't eat well on their own.

I feel like it's too indulgent and the child isn't learning basic manners. It's interesting to note the difference, but also stressing me out! I don't want my 5 year old to be unable to sit at a table because Daddy lets her do whatever she wants at dinner time, you know?