Community Chat

[Lucky Charm]

We were taught to eat everything on our plates.  Nothing wrong with that!  There's was never anything *junky* on our plates.  I was the same way with my children.  They aren't the same with their children, but I am.

I usually serve my grandchildren on smaller salad sized plates.  But my rule is, you eat everything.  I don't put anything on their plates they despise and will go to great lenghths to provide everyone with something they like.  I enjoy cooking and preparing 4 or 5 different meals is not unusual.  I've gotten them to try foods their parents would never attempt and have been quite successful.

Most kids nowadays are used to eating prepared meals (mac in cheese microwaved in a styrofoam container---the worst thing you could do for your loved ones).  Everything has to be easy peasy.  It's a shame.

[libbyannE]

No. My mother was a child during the Depression, but she says she wasn’t aware of it, except her mother gave food to men who came up to the back door and sometimes gave them odd jobs if they asked. I never waste food (I don’t know why, but it’s simply my nature), but my mother has never been careful about using vs wasting food. She’s always been smart with money and investments but not frugal, esp when spending on others or donating to charity.

[lovesrecess]

That is a true depression-era sentiment...keep things until used up,
worn out, or finished....there was no guarantee you would be able to get more of them...that included slivers of soap, scraps of bread, a sock with a hole in it. The soap went into a jar of water to make liquid soap, The bread was fed to the birds, or cut up to make stuffing or pudding, and the hole in the sock? It was sewn up...with a darning needle.

[Sooner]

I feel sad for kids that have to eat everything on their plates.  They will grow up and not understand what being full and time to stop eating is.  And that's not a good thing. 

[haddon9]

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@sidsmom wrote:

I, too, grew up with frugal parents but I feel my generation 

didn’t learn Want vs Need.

Re:  Food

Taking as much as you want but having to eat everything

(I.e Clean Plate Club) is just a bad lesson learned at childhood

causing all sorts of problems in adulthood.

Leaving something on the plate is a good thing, in many ways. 

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@sidsmom   I don't always agree with you but I agree this time!  Making a child eat everything on their plate isn't a good thing in my opinion plus it doesn't help those who are truly in need.

My 93 year old mother has been very frugal all of her life...a lesson ingrained in her as a child of the depression.  I have to admit that it didn't rub off on me.  I'm careful with my money but I'm not going to sacrifice when I can afford small luxuries in life.  My mother still does deny herself.  She can now afford to make her life easier but chooses not to do so.

[bonnielu]

My grandparents were immigrants.  And they raised their very large famlly with that slogan and mindset. I grew up that way and I presently have a whole bunch of my grandmothers and mothers furniture... never ever intending to ever get rid of it.  

My daughters don't want a thing.  Breaks my heart.  

[sidsmom]

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@bonnielu wrote:

My grandparents were immigrants.  And they raised their very large famlly with that slogan and mindset. I grew up that way and I presently have a whole bunch of my grandmothers and mothers furniture... never ever intending to ever get rid of it.  

My daughters don't want a thing.  Breaks my heart.  

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I could never understand that.

What’s important to you might not be important to me.

It’s just a piece of wood. 

[Sooner]

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@bonnielu wrote:

My grandparents were immigrants.  And they raised their very large famlly with that slogan and mindset. I grew up that way and I presently have a whole bunch of my grandmothers and mothers furniture... never ever intending to ever get rid of it.  

My daughters don't want a thing.  Breaks my heart.  

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@bonnielu Don't worry!  It's just furniture, not their memories.  And your mother and grandmother lived with things they wanted--so should your kids!  Make new memories and keep the old ones close!