Have You Ever Been Shamed for Being a Picky Eater?

Some things don’t outgrow childhood.

Photo by Tamas Pap on Unsplash

Thanksgiving 2021 just passed us by. Ours had pretty standard fare: turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, three types of casseroles (green bean, broccoli, and cornbread), cranberry sauce, crescent rolls, and three desserts (pumpkin pie, cranberry tart, and an Oreo trifle). Oh, and lasagna because the hostess’s husband is of Italian descent.

I didn’t marvel at the options — though, really, does Thanksgiving have to include so much food? — but as I waited to fill my plate I thought back to other holidays when I would have balked at most of those dishes. One of my early memories is of an Easter dinner where a well-meaning family member told me to “just try” the ham — and I spit out my first bite in a napkin. Said family member just shook their head at the other meager offerings on my plate. I think that was one of the first moments in my life when I felt judged.

Going back to Thanksgiving, I recall another early memory at my school’s yearly “Thanksgiving feast” where one of the parent volunteers gave me a scoop of gravy-covered dark meat that I ended up hiding under a napkin (see a pattern?) before throwing out my otherwise-empty plate discreetly. The next year, my mother instructed me to say, “No, thank you,” if…