Child Abuse and Food Torture

by Roxie
(California, USA)

I decided to write a commentary/article about describing the food torture, including the one that Robert's awful parents inflicted just because they could and also because it was yet another way they could make him squirm (see Child Abuse Story From Robert). Seriously, why are so many parents so antagonistic to their children? Do you eat foods you don't like? If not, then why should your child? With so many options available, why turn something nice and pleasant, such as eating, into nasty punishment? How damaging it is for children when they can't even count on having their own basic needs met. Imagine if you were in a wheelchair and couldn't even make meals for yourself; what would you think of your caretaker if he/she insists on cooking only the foods you really hate and then, if you didn't eat it to his/her satisfaction, decided to save the remains and then served them to you the next day? That's just plain meanness! If you hated something when it's fresh, you won't like it when it's a day old either. But that's not the point, right? In fact, the point is to make children understand that they have no rights, that they don't matter, that all that matters is their obedience, that no one cares about them, that their parents have no qualms in hurting them and that there's nothing they (the children) can do about it. Sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, SICK!!!

Every time my mom and my uncle would introduce me to new foods, they would suggest that I try at least one bite. Whenever I decided that I didn't like some of the new foods, they would thank me for trying; when I was a kid, every time my mom would take me to the grocery store, sometimes she would invite me to choose the foods that I wanted to try so she could prepare whatever I chose later on and see if I would like it or not. Isn't this the way people treat someone they like? What is the motivation for being cruel to the young and the helpless, aside from simply enjoying having the power to be as cruel and sadistic as someone likes and get away with it? Well, think about that next time you are considering having a mealtime battle with your child who happens to hate (or simply dislike) foods such as broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage rolls, fish, boiled eggs (soft or hard), lima beans, chicken feet, tongue, shish kebabs, seafood, sushi, Chinese food and the like, or when you decide to force that child to comply just by hurting said child. That's a shame that some people seem to think that children are somehow obligated to "forgive" their parents, no matter what they did, and "understand"--and then perpetrate the same abuse to their own children. I know that not all children grow up willing to sugar-coat or simply excuse such clear, hateful abuse. Are you willing to risk lifelong estrangement from your own children just for your own thrills of being cruel and sadistic? Food for thought.