In the defense of Dutchess_III I dint think she is only talking about this specific parent, but “all” parents who see fit to force their children to eat.
There certainly are parents who practically shove food down their children’s throat. They don’t let their children leave the table until their plate is completely cleared of food, or they insist a child eat something the child hates. Or, in my case adults would get annoyed if I just left a few bites of food over. They would say, “just finish it.” I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. I was afraid to eat one more bite if I was already full. I didn’t want to feel nauseas. I didn’t have stomach problems as a kid, I wasn’t easily nauseated, but if I overate I was.
Many adults seem to not understand that the taste buds of a child are different than adults. They have more buds functioning, things taste stronger and more extreme to most children as compared to most adults.
I think it can be abusive to force kids to eat when they are not hungry. It’s a form of physical abuse in my opinion, and I’m not so sure children feel a choice when their parent or another adult tells them they have to finish their food to leave the table. If my mom had piled too much food on my plate and told me that I would have been sobbing at the dining room table there for hours, or maybe eventually I would have overcome my fears and eaten and puked all the time, and eventually my stomach would have stretched to accommodate the food I guess.
Most of America is fat, their judgment about food and normal weight is completely screwed up. The average person is not a good judge of normal portions or normal weight anymore in my opinion. 40 years ago we were thinner as a country, portion size was different. Other countries are more realistic about portion size for adults and children. Some are even worse than America.