Love your questions @Sir Walter Pasty. This was very true at our house but that was not much of a problem since I love everything my Mom cooked except liver and peas. My parents gave up trying to make me eat those two things when I first sat at the table until "kingdom come" and never ate either of those two things and then starting hiding those things in napkins they would find 2 weeks later.
I assume so, but meals were usually just various combinations of normal things. Rarely anything weird enough to protest about. So I didn't test it.
I have never liked the taste of chicken, no matter how it is prepared. Since my Dad had the same dislike for the taste, we were not compelled to have any at dinner. As you can imagine, both my brothers were all in favor of allowing us this oddity. More Chicken for them!
My mother had two items on the menu: Take it or Leave it. Luckily, we liked just about anything on the table. to this day, we'll all eat anything that isn't faster than we are. I just don't remember very many picky eaters back then. Very few mothers had the patience or the ability to cater to different tastes.
Not so strictly. While my mother wasn't about to cook an entirely different meal for me if I didn't like something, I could make myself a sandwich or some soup instead. The younger I was, the fewer options I had.
Definitely, although there were just one or two meals I only managed to eat with the utmost reluctance. Unfortunately, this list is way longer today.
My mother fixed bacon and eggs for dad ,oatmeal for my brother, scrambled eggs in butter for me. It was ridiculous for her to have to do that. But come supper time, you had to eat it like or not-and I did not like most of it. Many a squabble and upset mealtime, and that I did not like. No child should be forced to eat something they do not like. So as mine grew up, you took a bite, ate it if you liked , and passed if you did not. Did this with Grand kids also. Taste changes as we age, I eat things now that would have gagged me as a young one. My idea of a vegetable was a pickle, until I was about 30.
I can remember sitting at the table for unthinkably long periods of time trying to eat lima beans. My dad sat with me until I was finally able to get the last one down. Today I could eat a bowl of them but then not so much.
if I didn't eat my dinner ( and it was mainly stewed beef which I hated)... I was served it up for breakfast cold with congealed fat. I couldn't eat it of course.. , and many a morning i would be sent to school hungry after having a hiding for not eating... !!! To this day I can't even smell beef stewing ( casseroles etc) without feeling sick!!
We always had 2 choices at mealtime .. eat or go hungry. I must say though that back then they liked to tell us to eat up because the children in other parts of the world were starving .. it never made sense how I was helping them by eating what I would gladly share with them !
In the first grade, the teacher made me eat every green bean on my plate. They were chopped, and I just swallowed them one at a time (not in front of her). Later, that night - my only trip to the E R.