I will say this once...parents that are really strict with their kids out of fear that they will run with a bad crowd or get in trouble are actually creating the scenario in which they will rebel and run around with the very crowd you are trying to protect them from. If your kids spend their childhoods fearing you, they will never tell you when things go really wrong or ask for help. But they will turn to the people that gave them the most freedom to be themselves. Keep that in mind. I ran around with a bad crowd because I was afraid of my mother. But I will be forever grateful to the friends that gave me a sense of freedom that I never got at home.

Simple case of "If I have to be awake and miserable about it, YOU have to be awake and miserable about it."

Teenage boys need to shower more than once a week. Adults too, really. Some people take money saving too far. I bet this saved them very little money.

That's abuse... MAJOR abuse. I'm baffled.... Extremely toxic psychological abuse... wow.

What's even the point?

Ha! LoL love this one. You go girl

This is so incredibly sad. My parents kept the snacks in a locked cupboard in the garage; my sis picked the lock and they moved the snacks. My mum used to hoard food in her room, and one time I snuck in there and ate some of it; I got into soooo much trouble over that. I was like 9 at the time.

This is a mental illness - it's so hard for people to let go of stuff. Some people who suffer can clearly see what's wrong with them but can't help them self nor get help by professional. The others don't even see an issue with their behavior

Screams sexual abuse.

I feel this. My parents would arbitrarily let me go out with friends. No reason or rhyme to it.

I grew up with the same dentist experience… still have to get full anaesthesia or laughing gas for the most minor things. Thanks mom!

Took me hours.... Mom guilt tripping me (with "other children in the world are starving, how dare you.)... The times I was 4 hours at the table were plentiful, picking my food, then finally giving in. Then rewarded with doing the dishes at 10 or 11 at night... I wasn't even a teen.

"You'll sit there until you eat it and enjoy it if it takes till bloody midnight". Even if it was something they knew I didn't like. Thirty odd years later I still have a list of foods I can't stand, and hate it when people joke about it 'oh go on, just one sprout' etc.

This was our house. Found myself over eating regularly. Now, as an adult, I can't stand the thought of leaving uneaten food on the plate. But trying to break the habit since I know that is what caused most of my weight issues.

Don't tell my mum but I had to put whatever it was that couldn't eat into my pocket and sneak it into the toilet to flush the evidence..I love you mum but cooking just isn't your strong point

This is how people develop eating disorders. I am very happy my mom always fought to let us eat what and how much we wanted. (Lots of people, including her mom, disagreed with her but she stood up to them.)

When my children were small they were encouraged to try a little bit of everything, and then choose what to put on their plate. They could keep coming back for more until they were full. However, it was not looked on favourably when they heaped up their plates and didn't eat what they had put on their own plates.

This!! I was a very picky and slow eater and wouldn't be allowed to leave the table till my plate was empty, which sometimes meant being at the kitchen table myself for hours after everyone else was finished. Also, I had a really bad overbite which caused me to chew with my mouth full, cause I literally couldn't close it...and that would get me a hit to the bottom of my chin....gawd I've bitten my tongue from that so many times I'm surprised its all there.

I couldn't stand meat. One summer my grandparents came to visit and told my mom that I should have to stay at the table until I ate it. I sat there every night with a piece in my mouth until bedtime when I was allow to spit it out. This went on for an entire summer until my mom gave up. I never did that c**p to my kids.

this! even getting it back cold the next day (and if neccesary the next.......) until emptied

this is why I have an eating disorder

Yup, me too. I would wait at the table until they were fully engrossed in whatever tv show they were watching and then bury what I couldn't eat in the bottom of the bin.

Grandma did this, and thought we were too skinny so wouldn’t even let us have a drink until we ate. And this was 3 huge southern meals a day. Everything fried and salty. She was a great cook and I’d love to have a week with her now, but as a kid it was a struggle. Also, we weren’t skinny, just normal sized kids.

We would get a hiding if we didn't finish our food

I'm confused. This happened all the time growing up. This ain't normal? Oh no....

I think this stems a lot from poorer families to not waste food. My dad does this and still does even though it's ok to have left overs. He doesn't want us to waste anything which I get but then just remind him we can save more for later.

I would get the same, stepfather would take off his belt and put it on the table in front of me for'incentive'.

You know the classic movie moment "kid you're going to sit here at the table until you finish your vegetables"? That was me, but with meat. I never liked meat except boneless chicken. I would have rather had 2 servings of veg than any meat. But my dad would force me. Once he made me eat the fatty bits of a steak and I legitimately started choking so he gave me the children's heimlich maneuver, and I threw up in the process. He spanked me and then yelled at me while I cleaned it up. I really wish parents knew they were giving us eating disorder fuel.

I'm 42, only recently have I learned to put the guilt aside and stop eating when full because of this very rule. Overweight btw.

Families who have these or pretty much any 'rules' to do with food, are the worst people. Even here in the comments, the lousy justifications. Thank goodness I was surrounded by non angsty adults who just cared you had something decent in your belly.

We had to do this with French onion soup it’s a whole lot of onions with bread chunks like croutons that got soggy and mushy and broth stuff it took 3-4 hours for us to finish

Well, it's not that easy from the other side too... Kids tend to dismiss healthy and solid meals coz "not being hungry at all, honest" and then in 10 minutes start a full-blown tantrum coz they're "sooo hungry they're about to die, but only hungry for treats"... Also, it's hard to know, if it's a real disgust or manipulation or such... Forcing kids to stay at the table for hours is not good for sure, but...

What does it matter if you cannot eat it all?? It's going to leave the house one way in the trash or the 🚻 bathroom

Are you my sibling?? My mom was the same! Maybe a generational thing?

This was very common in a lot of households, especially in families that were poor and/or went through the Depression. Even if a child really couldn't eat anymore, parents expected their children to finish everything on their plate to avoid waste and to make sure they didn't go hungry. This also happened a lot before their was good food storage, especially before fridges to keep food for later. Still, it's tough to keep eating when you're stuffed. Sometimes when I was small, instead of making my brother and I finish our food when we just couldn't anymore, my mom would just eat it for us if there wasn't enough left to make it worth keeping as leftovers, but too much to justify throwing it out.

this is really tame compared to others but my mom told me that if i don't finish my food i will become ugly.

This was a left over from the war when food was sparse, so you ate everything, because you had nothing before. I also had to sit there and eat everything, even the dry rubbery meat that made me gag.

I do not like cooked oatmeal for breakfast. I remember sitting at the table with the admittedly small bowl of gluey tasteless mush for hours until I had managed to gag it all down. Fortunately, I wasn't tortured with it again. Yes, I know, my husband cooked it properly, added raisins, brown sugar, and it wasn't as bad as how my family fixed it. Still not my favorite.

Anyone who does this deserves to be tied to a chair and served heaping helpings of every food they hate and not allowed up until it's all gone.

I grew up with my dad saying "You don't get down until it's cleared." and if we went to a buffet it was "Don't put anything on your plate you're not going to eat." As a result, I've had body dysmorphia since I was 13 years old, and I have wanted to be skinny and have a flat stomach. My depression made it so I basically trained my body to eat one meal a day and now that I actually want to fatten up and bulk up, because I'm underweight, I have my dad's voice in my head telling me that I'm "greedy" or a "gannet", or my body won't let me... For example, I ate so much on Sunday, that on Monday, I barely ate anything. I'm 28 and I'm underweight, but can't eat enough.

I felt this, my father (I hate calling him that) would put food, enough for two adults, on my plate and would make me sit for hours at the table until I finish my food, I realised later that it was abuse. I had problems with food ever since

I was a picky eater as a kid. I was always the last one at the table because I would not eat it, if I didn't like it. Never worked for me and I'm even pickier as an adult

Then don't laden the plate with heaps of food. And don't go telling kids about the starving millions if you put too much on their plate and they can't eat it. You're the one wasting food not your children.