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    9-year-old picky eater finds loophole in grandmother's strict dinner policy: 'Whatever is served to you gets eaten, no exceptions, no negotiating.'

    Some grandparents try to provide a different energy than the parents of their grandkids. If the parents are strict, grandparents might try to lighten the tension. However, this kid's grandmother took his mother's intensity and dialed it up to a 10. 

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    • A young kid does not want to eat what's in front of him. He covers his face in frustration at the dinner table.
      via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

      A young kid does not want to eat what's in front of him. He covers his face in frustration at the dinner table.

      Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    • My grandma had a rule that whatever lands on your plate you finish, so I made sure nothing I [disliked] ever landed on my plate

      Every summer until I was around 12 we'd spend two weeks at my grandma's house and she ran that kitchen like a small regional government. The rule was ironclad: you do not waste food,
      via Gallifrey9UK
    • whatever is served to you gets eaten, no exceptions, no negotiating. I was a picky kid and those two weeks were usually just a slow war of attrition between me and whatever she put in front of me. Then one year,
      via Gallifrey9UK
    • I think I was 9, I noticed something. She always put the food in the middle of the table and everyone served themselves.
      via Gallifrey9UK
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    • As a former picky eater myself, I cannot help but empathize with this kid's conundrum. On the one hand, you want to follow your grandmother's rules, as you're in her home and you're eating her food. However, on the other hand, your taste buds are far from fully developed (especially as a 9-year-old), and you deserve the right to draw the line at certain food items if you really don't want to eat them.

      Clearly, this was not one of those families where one generation tried to rectify the flaws of another generation. It sounds like the matriarchs of this family are just straight-up intense, and the energy has not shifted with age. Some folks assume that strict parents relax a bit once they get older, and especially when they become grandparents. However, this woman is certifiable proof of the fact that this assumption is not necessarily the case for all families.

    • An older grandparent serves dinner in the kitchen, looking stern and intense.
      via Tanya Chuvpylova

      An older grandparent serves dinner in the kitchen, looking stern and intense.

      Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

    • The rule was about what ended up on your plate, not what you chose to put there. So I started serving myself first, every single meal, tiny portions of the things I could tolerate, completely skipping the things I couldn't,
      via Gallifrey9UK
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    • loading up on bread and rice and anything neutral. Three days in nobody had noticed. By day five I had essentially engineered a version of every meal that I was willing to eat and was technically
      via Gallifrey9UK
    • following the rule perfectly. My grandma figured it out on day six when she watched me serve myself four dinner rolls and nothing else and just stare at her pleasantly. She stared back. Then
      via Gallifrey9UK
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    • she made a new rule on the spot that she would serve the children's plates herself from that day forward. I consider the six days a legitimate streak and think about it whenever someone tells me I'm not a strategic thinker.
      via Gallifrey9UK
    • An older grandparent makes coffee in the kitchen while their back is turned away from the dinner table.
      via Tanya Chuvpylova

      An older grandparent makes coffee in the kitchen while their back is turned away from the dinner table.

      Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

    • Sure, the author's attempt to find a loophole in his grandmother's strict rules only lasted for just under a week. Still, that clever pushback might have communicated the idea that Granny needs to take several steps back and calm down. It's not worth being so strict if you're just going to end up losing all sense of respect and enjoyment in the process!

    • JustaNobody618 . Lived with a roommate like this, was an absolutely terrible cook. She would insist on making your plate, then complain about you not eating everything on your plate. Her home cooked food tasted worse than the MREs that you get in the service.
      via Gallifrey9UK
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    • SarahCF30 My mom and dad had a rule that you had to try at least a bite of whatever had been prepared for dinner. It wasn't about control or "think of the starving children". It was about respecting the time mom
      via Gallifrey9UK
    • put into making dinner for us. You didn't have to like it and you didn't have to eat more than a bite but you did have to try it. I learned to swallow peas and Lima beans whole so I didn't have
      via Gallifrey9UK
    • to experience the nasty mouth feel of those veg. It helped that I liked most things mom cooked.
      via Gallifrey9UK
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    • Takssista My nephew decided to learn how to cook when I told him that whoever cooks never eat anything they don't like - his eyes got bigger and I swear I heard a light turn on inside his brain.
      via Gallifrey9UK
    • wayfarout My youngest brother is nearly 400 lbs because of this destructive mentality my mother forced on us. I fixed it for myself early while he never did. Prediabetic now and not doing about it.
      via Gallifrey9UK
    • painteddpiixi Don't have stupid rules if you can't handle kids following them their own way. Force feeding children is never the way to teach them healthy habits.
      via Gallifrey9UK
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    • Negative_Ratio_8... Your grandma was failing at being a grandma. She was shooting for "mother, the sequel."
      via Gallifrey9UK

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    family drama malicious compliance kids loophole dinner grandmother picky eater
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