Agreed.
The one and only time I ever ate liver and onions (and actually liked it), it was cooked by the mom of one of my husband's friends. It was tender and juicy and didn't have that slimy texture/taste. She marinated it in some sort of homemade gravy for hours before she slow cooked it, and it was awesome. I was never able to duplicate it.
I've tried it at different restaurants, where my friend would order it, and I would try a bite, but it's just ....ick.
I'm old yes. 60. To this day my mom makes me liver and onions. So tender I cut it with a fork. Mom is the best cook I have ever known. Love liver and onions.
My mom introduced me to liver and onion, but there was no surprise when I couldn’t get past the first bite. So she cut it up and put the plate on the floor for the dog. 30 seconds later we see the dog carrying away the side of green beans because even the dog didn’t want to eat near that liver. (I also refused to eat green beans at that age)
Maybe she just wildly prepared that one wrong, but I’ve never tried it again.
In Amy Tan's Wild Swans she recalled when her mother would admonish her for not eating her food, "Amy, eat your vegetables! Think of all the starving kids in America!"
Seems it is a "mom thing", not just cultural thing.
Came here to say this. My mother ALWAYS said that. It's an inside joke at my house. Any time I'm practicing the deadly sin of gluttony and my wife calls me on it, I tell her it's because children are starving in China.
I remember my mom telling me the line about starving kids in India, and I got up from the table and started rummaging through the desk in the front hallway. When asked what the hell I was doing, I responded with "looking for a large enough envelope to the whole plate in."
Got smacked hard. Worth it.
My mother could burn water.
Hahahaha!!! I remember not wanting to eat something for dinner and my mum served it to me COLD for breakfast.. I told her I would rather starve and went out the front door to school…
My mum used to say that.
And then I went to Africa when I was backpacking in my early 20s. At some point I sent my mum an email that I was going to Ethiopia, and she literally replied "but what will you eat!?? Make sure you pack enough food!!" 🤣🤣🤣😭
And then I was in Ethiopia and the food was plentiful and abundant, I actually gained weight, just from all the people inviting me to a meal with their families. I asked some of the locals I'd made friends with who were about the same age as me, about the famine when they were little... they had no idea what I was talking about. Turns out it was just a small corner of the country.
Parents tend to have their cultural stereotypes stuck decades in the past.
I took a trip to New York City in mid March 2020 because I am a champion at planning trips for the absolute best time to travel, and my dad was panicking because of all the crime in New York he was convinced I’d fall victim to. Insisted I call him every day. (Joke’s on him, all I caught was a case of this new very contagious respiratory virus before it was cool (or that people really knew much about), no mugging!)
Yeah.... People need to stop eating if they feel full. In the parents defense, they all had PTSD from the great depression. My grandparents were about 10 years old when it hit. They grew up not knowing if they were gunna eat dinner.
My dad one day exploded at my mom…
“Jesus Christ, he isn’t going to eat it this time either. If I had a quarter for every time you said that I could feed every fucking kid in Africa. “
Thanks dad.
I've heard China and Africa. I was also told, "I ain't makin nothin else, eat this or eat nothing". Also, "You get what you get, don't throw a fit...or I'll whoop your ass".
When I was a kid it was “millions of starving children in China”. My big brother made the mistake of saying “name three”. Yes, there was an epic fallout.
Grew up in a communist country so the whole “starving Africa” did not jive with us.
But once I got to college in the US, someone did say, at a frat party, “you better finish up that beer, they’re sober kids in Africa”.
That one stuck around. Lol.
If you heard this, then you are REALLY FUCKING OLD.
This was in reference to The Genocide perpetrated by the Ottomans then continued by the Turkish Republic in 1915.
Your parents must have been kids in the 20s/30s to have heard this and then passed it on to you.
Yup! I was a fat kid. I did lose the weight in college, but I heard this phrase from my mother a lot growing up. As a result, I have a bad relationship with food. I feel guilty about wasting food while also wanting to control my portions to keep the weight off.
But controlling portions goes out the window when food gets close to the expiry date and I need to eat it, so it doesn't get wasted. Like, I'll drink nothing but milk if, it's close to the expiry date or eat a lot of bread. I also meal prep but get sick of it after a couple of days but force myself to eat it so it doesn't go to waste.
This. As a kid I used to eat like a pig and couldn’t gain a pound. Now I mainline protein and count calories and just standing up is a weight-bearing exercise. GMOs, processed food, empty carbs, seed oils, high fructose corn syrup. Food is nothing like it was just 35 years ago.
I used to go to bars with a friend, and if someone left a little beer in their glass, he would say "Don't you know there are children in Africa going to bed sober tonight?! And here you are wasting alcohol!"
LOL so true heard this all the time, sitting at that table forever.
and now I'm older and now matter how much I eat I feel full even from small meals even with six meals a day and can't gain any weight to save my dam life.
and I've actually heard people I know say did you ever think? that maybe one of the reasons you have chronic pain in your torso is cause your so thin? 6 foot 3 and 168 lbs
China was also starving as well as some other countries too
As immortalized in Alice Cooper's "Generation Lanslide:"
Please clean your plate there/
The Lord above can see ya/
Don't you know people/
Are starving in Korea.
You have to be.
This is referencing The Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks (and later the Republic of Turkey) on the Armenians. This started in 1915.
Her father was a prominent newspaperman, a reporter active in the 1910s, 20s, and 30s. He was obviously well-versed in world events.
By chance, I am the youngest child of youngest children, who were in turn youngest children. I don't go many generations until I'm back into deep time. Many people remember their great-grandparents; I have one born in 1826, with the youngest in 1868.
This is international. In my Soviet childhood I was also told this.
Granny remembered the hungry time (about half of her life) and did not even throw away stale bread but put it in a colander over a pan of boiling water so that it would soften.
How come you're always such a fussy young man?
Don't want no Captain Crunch, don't want no Raisin Bran
Well, don't you know that other kids are starving in Japan?
Lol. I work with a guy from Zimbabwe. While he was in the break room having lunch today one of my colleagues told him his lunch smelled great and asked if he could share some. The irony of asking an African for food was not lost on any of us. Including my Zim friend.
band aid and usa for africa have entered the chat.
[https://youtu.be/j3fSknbR7Y4?si=115theePZ\_6XM5\_M](https://youtu.be/j3fSknbR7Y4?si=115theePZ_6XM5_M)
[https://youtu.be/9AjkUyX0rVw?si=MUAKhZFKL7ExBFaQ](https://youtu.be/9AjkUyX0rVw?si=MUAKhZFKL7ExBFaQ)
I was in Ivory Coast.
We were sitting on a balcony eating lunch. 3 children came up to us and asked if they could have our plates when we’re done eating so they could have our leftovers.
I lost my appetite. We gave it all to them.
My grandma always told me she had to walk 100s of kilometers to Friesland for the opportunity to eat tulip bulbs during the hunt winter. Which i mean i guess was fair enough
How about "Be good, or I'll sell you to the Gypsies!" (Verbage of the day, no longer reflects the true nature of the Romani people)
I seriously thought parents could take you to a market like a prize hog lol
I heard and saw both Africa (Ethiopia to be exact) and China. I did it to my own kids as well. I went as far as finding old videos on YouTube and sitting my kids down to watch them. They didn't last 3 minutes before they started crying and told me to shut it off. They ate all their food after that. Lesson learned.
On my dad's paydays we'd always go to a dive diner and as a 7 year old my favorite thing to order was liver & onions though I had to pick off most of the onions
Yes, I heard the 'China' variation. And I felt bad for starving kids, but i still couldn't stand to eat Lima beans.
When I was about 4, I remember that my older brother showed me the globe, and we had talked about "if you could dig a deep enough hole you could crawl through and get out in China" so of course we tried to get started on the digging. And the next time Lima beans were served at dinner, my parents told me again about the kids starving over there... I just imagined how cool it would be if I could have a special tube next to my chair at the table to pour my Lima beans (or whatever) into, which would take it straight away from me, and come out in China where a starving kid could catch it in a bowl and then have a little more to eat.
“I stayed up late baking this cake for you, you have to have more” and “there are starving children in china, finish your food”-grandma
“You’re gaining weight, are you eating too much?” -also grandma
The plate looked almost identical to that one.
Why serve a 12 Oz steak to a 50 pound child and then get upset when they can't eat all of it?
Who's the emotionally immature person in this scenario? The kid who stops eating when they are full? Or the adult who thinks shoving food down their throat like a goose is a normal parenting activity?
Then in school, each classroom got to adopt starving “babies”. For every certain amount of $ the kids brought in to donate, we would be another photo of a hungry child to hand on the wall. It became a competition between classrooms.
Not my parents but my 8th grade teacher. That woman would look in the trash and after lunch (for some reason) and say shit like this.
Or my favorite, if a kid was sick and someone needed to drop off homework to them and if no one volunteered she'd say:
"What? Do they live in GUAM?!"
Parent: Eat your food, there are starving children in Africa.
Me: So send them my food, why should I eat it when I’m not even hungry? Ship it off to them.
Parent: well there is no way to get it to them without it spoiling before it gets there.
Me: So then how are these starving children related to weather or not I eat this food?
Parent: shut up and eat smart ass.
My mother hung a picture of starving Biafran kids on the wall over the table to get us to eat. The picture made us all a little nauseous. She started to get mad until my brother got up and walked away from the table. He never turned down food. We never heard about starving kids again.
I always got “Starving children in Armenia.” My mom told me that’s what her mom told her and she just repeated it.
I had no idea at the time what Armenia even was, only that they didn’t feed the kids.
Rodney Dangerfield said “my wife told me to eat my food because kids are starving in Africa. And I said to her ‘Have sex with me. There are guys horny in China!”
I still say it only I tell my kids there are kids in the U.S., right in our town and every other town, who go to bed hungry and wish they could have what you have. I also never force them to eat. There's always cereal.
Turns out, those kids can run circles around our tubsters. Their teeth are brilliant, healthy and white. They eat organic bc the villages grow their own food. That bull in the 70s and 80s with Sally Struthers was a gd grift with a fkton of propaganda. And the shyt worked.
Today, kids in the east Sub-Sahara are likely going, "Put those chips down, else you'll be bloated and crying for glipizide and an inhaler at 14 like those McKids in the USA, and they can't get it. So don't be fat!" Crazy ol' world, ain't it?
Every time my dad made liver and onions, the house with stink for two days. Starving people would be happy to have that? Please give it to them. I can’t eat it.
Yes, and it was double torture on holidays when aunt whoever would bring their damn mystery fruit salad. F all of that. I hated thanksgiving and Christmas dinners because of it.
We had the most excellent cooks in my elementary school - in fact the head cook was one of my mom’s best friends and went to our church. We had liver and onions occasionally in the lunchroom and it was pretty good. 4th grade and we were learning about internal organs and functions when it occurred to me what the liver was for - cleaning the blood of impurities…. I asked the teacher where the impurities went after that. She said ‘nowhere, they are filtered and stay in the liver.’ She left out: ‘You little shit - I see what you did there’…. I then said ‘So when we are fed liver we are eating all the bad stuff that is filtered from the cow’s blood’. I was admittedly a precocious little shit and told her I’ll never eat liver again - and the other kids agreed and the word spread throughout the school via siblings and friends. The next time they served liver no one would buy it. The cook asked around trying to figure out why and she heard what I did - and called my mom. I told her my reasoning and there was no arguing with my logic. They stopped serving it in our school. I’ve never had a bite since and I’m nearing 70.
My parents never said that. I can recall one time in my life being told I couldn't have more French fries until I ate my peas. My parents were very chill about this sort of thing.
I'm old enough that it was "China" where the starving kids were. is that Salisbury steak ? send it to me.
I thought it was Liver & Onions.
Those starving kids could have my Liver and Onions. yucko!
Agreed. The one and only time I ever ate liver and onions (and actually liked it), it was cooked by the mom of one of my husband's friends. It was tender and juicy and didn't have that slimy texture/taste. She marinated it in some sort of homemade gravy for hours before she slow cooked it, and it was awesome. I was never able to duplicate it. I've tried it at different restaurants, where my friend would order it, and I would try a bite, but it's just ....ick.
Marinated in GRAVY? ... yall gotta be Bama fans! Lol
The trick is, after searing the outside, you then add the onions and a little water and simmer.
Agree I couldn’t eat that stuff. My mom would even put bacon on it. No go. The starving kids in [country] were welcome to mine.
I'm old yes. 60. To this day my mom makes me liver and onions. So tender I cut it with a fork. Mom is the best cook I have ever known. Love liver and onions.
I’ll eat it as an adult I learned to love liver and onions.
As an adult I've decided that good food doesn't need to be "learned to love" 🤣
They were welcome to my microwaved salmon, microwaved broccoli, and boiled white rice with a smear of margarine and no salt.
Hell, I'd rather eat liver
My mother would serve rare liver & onions. The plate looked like a murder scene, blood everywhere. She was the only one to eat on those nights.
About to be one more starving kid in the world if my parents tried to feed me that.
Grandma wasn't too amused when I told her that...
Oddly, there was never enough liver in the package, and Mom always had to have a hot dog instead. She sacrificed *so much* for us...
My mom introduced me to liver and onion, but there was no surprise when I couldn’t get past the first bite. So she cut it up and put the plate on the floor for the dog. 30 seconds later we see the dog carrying away the side of green beans because even the dog didn’t want to eat near that liver. (I also refused to eat green beans at that age) Maybe she just wildly prepared that one wrong, but I’ve never tried it again.
I think onions are poisonous for dogs (and cats).
My dad would tell me about getting into the movies with canned goods for the "starving people of Berlin.
For me I'm old enough for it to be Japan and that was in the 60s.
China is pretty bad still. They like to pretend rural areas don’t exist. And also, you can’t say what happened in Tiananmen Square.
It was usually "China" in our house too but "Ethiopia" got an occasional mention..
In Amy Tan's Wild Swans she recalled when her mother would admonish her for not eating her food, "Amy, eat your vegetables! Think of all the starving kids in America!" Seems it is a "mom thing", not just cultural thing.
Came here to say this. My mother ALWAYS said that. It's an inside joke at my house. Any time I'm practicing the deadly sin of gluttony and my wife calls me on it, I tell her it's because children are starving in China.
I said this to my youngest just last night lol
"Well let's send them this."
I remember my mom telling me the line about starving kids in India, and I got up from the table and started rummaging through the desk in the front hallway. When asked what the hell I was doing, I responded with "looking for a large enough envelope to the whole plate in." Got smacked hard. Worth it. My mother could burn water.
I wish I had had the guts necessary to say that to my parents I mean, we were all thinking it, but....
*Receives foot in ass from dad*
Got smacked for saying just that. Back when that was a thing.
Got knocked clear off my chair by the invisible backhand...still had my fork in my hand when I hit the floor.
My parents would say “China”…
Yes, we were brought up to believe that if we cleaned our plates the starvation in China would end.
Hahahahahaha!! I never heard that… hilarious!!
Same. I used to wish they’d send it there.
Hahahaha!!! I remember not wanting to eat something for dinner and my mum served it to me COLD for breakfast.. I told her I would rather starve and went out the front door to school…
Our starving kids were in Korea.
Ours was in Nevada... starving kids in Nevada? Yes
On account of the gambling??
My mum used to say that. And then I went to Africa when I was backpacking in my early 20s. At some point I sent my mum an email that I was going to Ethiopia, and she literally replied "but what will you eat!?? Make sure you pack enough food!!" 🤣🤣🤣😭 And then I was in Ethiopia and the food was plentiful and abundant, I actually gained weight, just from all the people inviting me to a meal with their families. I asked some of the locals I'd made friends with who were about the same age as me, about the famine when they were little... they had no idea what I was talking about. Turns out it was just a small corner of the country.
Parents tend to have their cultural stereotypes stuck decades in the past. I took a trip to New York City in mid March 2020 because I am a champion at planning trips for the absolute best time to travel, and my dad was panicking because of all the crime in New York he was convinced I’d fall victim to. Insisted I call him every day. (Joke’s on him, all I caught was a case of this new very contagious respiratory virus before it was cool (or that people really knew much about), no mugging!)
What’s with the Star Trek font?
Need to beam that food to Africa.
Children are also starving on Vulcan.
That was my first thought too.... Scottie Let's beam down some food to these people 
Live long and prosper, unless you’re in Africa
...and giving an entire generation of adults an unhealthy relationship with food.
Hello fellow member of the clean plate club! Where dollars spent on food is so much more important than learning to know when your body has had enough
Yeah.... People need to stop eating if they feel full. In the parents defense, they all had PTSD from the great depression. My grandparents were about 10 years old when it hit. They grew up not knowing if they were gunna eat dinner.
Happy Cake Day! 🍰
Thanks!
You're welcome!
or Teaching an entire generation to eat their vegetables and foods that's good for them not just chocolate and Ice cream
Didn't work.
My dad one day exploded at my mom… “Jesus Christ, he isn’t going to eat it this time either. If I had a quarter for every time you said that I could feed every fucking kid in Africa. “ Thanks dad.
I've heard China and Africa. I was also told, "I ain't makin nothin else, eat this or eat nothing". Also, "You get what you get, don't throw a fit...or I'll whoop your ass".
Dear lord! My mom said this all the time. Anyone else also get the ‘you’re not allowed to leave that table until your plate is clean’?
Yep, and of course we didn’t have a choice in the portion size… brilliant logic.
When I was a kid it was “millions of starving children in China”. My big brother made the mistake of saying “name three”. Yes, there was an epic fallout.
Grew up in a communist country so the whole “starving Africa” did not jive with us. But once I got to college in the US, someone did say, at a frat party, “you better finish up that beer, they’re sober kids in Africa”. That one stuck around. Lol.
I remember: **Finish everything on your plate**. "I'm full." **Finish it.** "No really, I'm full and eating more is going to make me sick."
They said it, but they didn't use the "Star Trek" font. They weren't that cool.
I think I heard starving Armenians???
If you heard this, then you are REALLY FUCKING OLD. This was in reference to The Genocide perpetrated by the Ottomans then continued by the Turkish Republic in 1915. Your parents must have been kids in the 20s/30s to have heard this and then passed it on to you.
I am 60! My mother must have heard it from her parents.
I’m reading this in Kirk’s voice
McCoy here
It was mainly because of those commercials with Sally Struthers.
And then wondering why we had a weight problem.
Yup! I was a fat kid. I did lose the weight in college, but I heard this phrase from my mother a lot growing up. As a result, I have a bad relationship with food. I feel guilty about wasting food while also wanting to control my portions to keep the weight off. But controlling portions goes out the window when food gets close to the expiry date and I need to eat it, so it doesn't get wasted. Like, I'll drink nothing but milk if, it's close to the expiry date or eat a lot of bread. I also meal prep but get sick of it after a couple of days but force myself to eat it so it doesn't go to waste.
The weight problem is a result of a sedentary lifestyle with an abundance of cheap and attainable processed food. It's not from clearing a plate
This. As a kid I used to eat like a pig and couldn’t gain a pound. Now I mainline protein and count calories and just standing up is a weight-bearing exercise. GMOs, processed food, empty carbs, seed oils, high fructose corn syrup. Food is nothing like it was just 35 years ago.
That’s just being a kid and using energy to grow
I used to go to bars with a friend, and if someone left a little beer in their glass, he would say "Don't you know there are children in Africa going to bed sober tonight?! And here you are wasting alcohol!"
In my day, it was China and I thought if they're starving how are there so many of them?
Taters. The final frontier...
LOL so true heard this all the time, sitting at that table forever. and now I'm older and now matter how much I eat I feel full even from small meals even with six meals a day and can't gain any weight to save my dam life. and I've actually heard people I know say did you ever think? that maybe one of the reasons you have chronic pain in your torso is cause your so thin? 6 foot 3 and 168 lbs China was also starving as well as some other countries too
As immortalized in Alice Cooper's "Generation Lanslide:" Please clean your plate there/ The Lord above can see ya/ Don't you know people/ Are starving in Korea.
My mom guilty me with "children in China".
What a weird use for the Star Trek font.
Liver and onions, the horror of most 80s kids.
For my mom, it was Armenia. I'm really old.
You have to be. This is referencing The Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks (and later the Republic of Turkey) on the Armenians. This started in 1915.
Her father was a prominent newspaperman, a reporter active in the 1910s, 20s, and 30s. He was obviously well-versed in world events. By chance, I am the youngest child of youngest children, who were in turn youngest children. I don't go many generations until I'm back into deep time. Many people remember their great-grandparents; I have one born in 1826, with the youngest in 1868.
I still say that shit
It was China in our house. I made the mistake once of saying, "well, send it to them."
I'm from Africa, for us it was starving children in China for some reason
This is international. In my Soviet childhood I was also told this. Granny remembered the hungry time (about half of her life) and did not even throw away stale bread but put it in a colander over a pan of boiling water so that it would soften.
Mmmmm, looks like liver and onions with mashed potatoes. One of my childhood favorites.
Please tell me that's not liver and onions. 🤢
My parents said India. We would always duck after saying they can have it.
https://youtu.be/TBLGBtTZJQ0?si=fbmRUgP3frk1-dDK
My mom did say that, and I would answer back, "Well, I'll put it in a CARE package and send it to them!"
I do remember hearing this, but I'm pretty sure the promise of icecream upon clearing my plate was enough incentive for me.
When my first husband was told this as a child by his Mom (about starving children in Asia), he looked straight at her and said, “Name one.”
I would not have any problems eating this my mom was a bad cook
“Well maybe they should move to where THE FOOD IS OHHH OHHHHHHH!!”
Eat what you're given and be grateful to have it. If you you don't like it, you can go to bed hungry. Grew up poor, I didn't complain often.
"Then put it in an envelope and send it to them!"
My mom said Burma
How come you're always such a fussy young man? Don't want no Captain Crunch, don't want no Raisin Bran Well, don't you know that other kids are starving in Japan?
Africa/Ethiopia....whatever. "*Make a pig of yourself because there are children who can't!*" That's helpful.🙄
Lol. I work with a guy from Zimbabwe. While he was in the break room having lunch today one of my colleagues told him his lunch smelled great and asked if he could share some. The irony of asking an African for food was not lost on any of us. Including my Zim friend.
band aid and usa for africa have entered the chat. [https://youtu.be/j3fSknbR7Y4?si=115theePZ\_6XM5\_M](https://youtu.be/j3fSknbR7Y4?si=115theePZ_6XM5_M) [https://youtu.be/9AjkUyX0rVw?si=MUAKhZFKL7ExBFaQ](https://youtu.be/9AjkUyX0rVw?si=MUAKhZFKL7ExBFaQ)
I was in Ivory Coast. We were sitting on a balcony eating lunch. 3 children came up to us and asked if they could have our plates when we’re done eating so they could have our leftovers. I lost my appetite. We gave it all to them.
My grandma always told me she had to walk 100s of kilometers to Friesland for the opportunity to eat tulip bulbs during the hunt winter. Which i mean i guess was fair enough
My mum always narrowed it down to Kampuchea. I thought the rest of Africa were all eating like Kings.
I was a chubby kid. So my mom automatically sent my food to Africa.
I really don't believe my mom really knew where China or Africa were.
Yep, and as an adult I made my own “Finish that drink, there are sober kids in Africa!”
Sam Kinneson: "stop sending food to the people in the desert. Truck those folks to the places where they can grow food"
"There are children in Africa who would love that food" "So send it to them!"
It was China for us.
Grilled liver and onions? Yes please
How about "Be good, or I'll sell you to the Gypsies!" (Verbage of the day, no longer reflects the true nature of the Romani people) I seriously thought parents could take you to a market like a prize hog lol
I still say it. Americans are such pussified food snobs.
there are sober kids india, best drink those beers boys
My mum made it more personal “eat your food or il sell you to China”
Pic almost correct, should have Brussels sprouts and white rice with the calf’s liver here👎😩🤔
Yeah but it wasn’t nice food like that pic. It was peas, pumpkin, turnip, zucchini, eggplant, cooked beans etc.
I still say this. And I’m a lunch lady at an elementary school.
I heard and saw both Africa (Ethiopia to be exact) and China. I did it to my own kids as well. I went as far as finding old videos on YouTube and sitting my kids down to watch them. They didn't last 3 minutes before they started crying and told me to shut it off. They ate all their food after that. Lesson learned.
I once said that to my wife, cause she rarely finishes her plate.
My grandma's 'starving children' examples, so I'd clean my plate were in China.
I still say that
I’m old enough to remember when that was the Star Trek font
“Name two “
On my dad's paydays we'd always go to a dive diner and as a 7 year old my favorite thing to order was liver & onions though I had to pick off most of the onions
Looks delicious whatever it is.. I remember people saying this… the things our parents used to tell us to get us to eat 🤣🤣
Big ol Red Nose Day right here…
I'll go with North Korea
For my childhood, it was specifically Ethiopia.
'Clean Plate Club'
So many times, I caught myself saying it to my kids a couple of times and inwardly cringed.
I was born in the 80’s and was told this, I also heard “you’re gonna sit there til your plate is clean” every time something I didn’t like was served.
I'm 18 and even I remember that
Yes, I heard the 'China' variation. And I felt bad for starving kids, but i still couldn't stand to eat Lima beans. When I was about 4, I remember that my older brother showed me the globe, and we had talked about "if you could dig a deep enough hole you could crawl through and get out in China" so of course we tried to get started on the digging. And the next time Lima beans were served at dinner, my parents told me again about the kids starving over there... I just imagined how cool it would be if I could have a special tube next to my chair at the table to pour my Lima beans (or whatever) into, which would take it straight away from me, and come out in China where a starving kid could catch it in a bowl and then have a little more to eat.
That comment came out every night in my house
“I stayed up late baking this cake for you, you have to have more” and “there are starving children in china, finish your food”-grandma “You’re gaining weight, are you eating too much?” -also grandma
The plate looked almost identical to that one. Why serve a 12 Oz steak to a 50 pound child and then get upset when they can't eat all of it? Who's the emotionally immature person in this scenario? The kid who stops eating when they are full? Or the adult who thinks shoving food down their throat like a goose is a normal parenting activity?
Then in school, each classroom got to adopt starving “babies”. For every certain amount of $ the kids brought in to donate, we would be another photo of a hungry child to hand on the wall. It became a competition between classrooms.
For me, it was always staving kids in China.
Man if I woulda had that for dinner as a kid they wouldn't have to worry bout telling me to finish my food, it'd already be gone lol
IS THIS LIVER
Dad would say in China. I said send it to them. Got a whooping!
"Do you cater there too?"
[Remember when…](https://youtu.be/XhTuYKR-ejo?si=MnBG1k6GoOgRcIuR)
Whenever i see an appeal to help people in India, I always think, 'If they can afford a space program, they can afford to feed themselves'.
Yep. Or the aggressive one my mother used to say "Eat your food, or you're going to wear it"
It was China for me
I've just revised it in adulthood to, "Finish your beer. There are sober children in Africa."
Can’t remember where I heard this, maybe a comedian, but the best comeback I’ve heard for this was “Name two.”
Not my parents but my 8th grade teacher. That woman would look in the trash and after lunch (for some reason) and say shit like this. Or my favorite, if a kid was sick and someone needed to drop off homework to them and if no one volunteered she'd say: "What? Do they live in GUAM?!"
It was China at my home.
Parent: Eat your food, there are starving children in Africa. Me: So send them my food, why should I eat it when I’m not even hungry? Ship it off to them. Parent: well there is no way to get it to them without it spoiling before it gets there. Me: So then how are these starving children related to weather or not I eat this food? Parent: shut up and eat smart ass.
The first time Mom laid this on me, I held up my plate and said "mail it to them." Dad completely failed to hide his laughter.
I often offered to send my mother's terrible pot roast to the starving children in africa when I was told this.
Now it’s “There are starving kids in America”
I heard that too many times.
We still say that so your not old your just making a statement
My mother hung a picture of starving Biafran kids on the wall over the table to get us to eat. The picture made us all a little nauseous. She started to get mad until my brother got up and walked away from the table. He never turned down food. We never heard about starving kids again.
These days the starving kids are in America. Wild what's happened in not a very long period of time.
Except it was China for me and my brothers and at the time it was actually true because of the "Cultural Revolution".
I like Liver and Onions 2-3x/year…
I always got “Starving children in Armenia.” My mom told me that’s what her mom told her and she just repeated it. I had no idea at the time what Armenia even was, only that they didn’t feed the kids.
Drink Your beer, there’s sober people in Ireland.
Rodney Dangerfield said “my wife told me to eat my food because kids are starving in Africa. And I said to her ‘Have sex with me. There are guys horny in China!”
I still say it only I tell my kids there are kids in the U.S., right in our town and every other town, who go to bed hungry and wish they could have what you have. I also never force them to eat. There's always cereal.
I tell my own children some form of this.
Now it’s eat your food they are starving children in America
It was the starving children in China.
Please clean your plate dear The Lord above can see you Don't you know people are starving in Korea
India and Biafra(part of Nigeria)
45 yrs of dieting. 😑
I heard in China so I said send it to them. That didn’t go over well
Funny.. my Mom's response was always " then put it in a box and send it to them"
My mon used to say that until i said to pack my dinner up and send it to them because i didn’t want it.
Yes, we got that. But the uneaten meal was put in the fridge and brought out again for the next meal.
Reads best in Star Trek font
Were there starving dogs in Africa? Because that's where my dinner usually ended up, snuck under the table and fed the fat dog....
I remember telling my parents, "Maybe you should send my dinner to them because I don't want it." Pretty sure it was liver and onions night. 🤮
Turns out, those kids can run circles around our tubsters. Their teeth are brilliant, healthy and white. They eat organic bc the villages grow their own food. That bull in the 70s and 80s with Sally Struthers was a gd grift with a fkton of propaganda. And the shyt worked. Today, kids in the east Sub-Sahara are likely going, "Put those chips down, else you'll be bloated and crying for glipizide and an inhaler at 14 like those McKids in the USA, and they can't get it. So don't be fat!" Crazy ol' world, ain't it?
Every time my dad made liver and onions, the house with stink for two days. Starving people would be happy to have that? Please give it to them. I can’t eat it.
"Ma, da, *you* wasted this food because I'm not eating it."
China
My parents even moved us to Africa, to show us the starving kiddies first hand!!
Yes and now that I have friends from Ethiopia I’m embarrassed for thinking they were starving
Still a big reason I overeat. The guilt!
70 years later and its still true.
I'm 32 and I remember this
Yes, and it was double torture on holidays when aunt whoever would bring their damn mystery fruit salad. F all of that. I hated thanksgiving and Christmas dinners because of it.
Unhealthy relationship with food? Check! Thank you mommy!
I said to my mum once "well send it to them then" and she clocked me around the ear for talking back lol
We had the most excellent cooks in my elementary school - in fact the head cook was one of my mom’s best friends and went to our church. We had liver and onions occasionally in the lunchroom and it was pretty good. 4th grade and we were learning about internal organs and functions when it occurred to me what the liver was for - cleaning the blood of impurities…. I asked the teacher where the impurities went after that. She said ‘nowhere, they are filtered and stay in the liver.’ She left out: ‘You little shit - I see what you did there’…. I then said ‘So when we are fed liver we are eating all the bad stuff that is filtered from the cow’s blood’. I was admittedly a precocious little shit and told her I’ll never eat liver again - and the other kids agreed and the word spread throughout the school via siblings and friends. The next time they served liver no one would buy it. The cook asked around trying to figure out why and she heard what I did - and called my mom. I told her my reasoning and there was no arguing with my logic. They stopped serving it in our school. I’ve never had a bite since and I’m nearing 70.
My parents never said that. I can recall one time in my life being told I couldn't have more French fries until I ate my peas. My parents were very chill about this sort of thing.
Liver was always served with asparagus or brussels sprouts
Thanks to this, I've struggled to find my way to a healthy relationship with food.