History Main / TrappedAtTheDinnerTable

In RealLife, this type of punishment is starting to fall out of use, as parents have realized it's not a good way to get children to not be picky eaters, given that they can be notoriously stubborn and will end up sitting at the table for hours rather than eat. In the worst-case scenarios, it can cause them to grow up to have a poor relationship with food. Instead, other methods for getting children to try healthy but bad-tasting food are becoming more popular, such as cooking them differently or [[TrojanVeggies hiding them inside better-tasting foods]].

* In the poem "Summer Squash" by Donald Graves, the narrator is forced to sit at the table until he eats a bite of summer squash (described as a "watery mash with seeds and strings"), while his brother eats his entire portion just to rub his punishment in his face. His mom wants to finish the dishes and forces him to have a bite, so he holds it in his mouth until she leaves and spits it out. Finally, he tries to get rid of it by feeding it to his dog, but even she doesn't like it.

In RealLife, this type of punishment is starting to fall out of use, as parents have realized it's not a good way to get children to not be picky eaters, given that they can be notoriously stubborn and will end up sitting at the table for hours rather than eat. In the worst-case scenarios, it can cause them to grow up to have a poor relationship with food. Instead, other methods for getting children to try healthy but bad-tasting food can be used, such as cooking them differently or [[TrojanVeggies hiding them inside better-tasting foods]].

In RealLife, this type of punishment is starting to fall out of use, as parents have realized it's not a good way to get children to not be picky eaters, and in the worst-case scenarios can cause them to grow up to have a poor relationship with food. Instead, other methods for getting children to try healthy but bad-tasting food can be used, such as cooking them differently or [[TrojanVeggies hiding them inside better-tasting foods]].

It's dinnertime at Alice's house, but there's one particular food on her plate she just won't eat, no matter what (and it's almost always [[KidsHateVegetables some sort of vegetable]]). Even after her parents have tried [[IfItTastesBadItMustBeGoodForYou extolling the health benefits of said food]], gone on a tangent about [[AppealToWorseProblems starving children in some far-off country]], and/or mentioned how hard one or both of them work to put food on the table, she still won't eat it. So they pull out the big guns: she can't leave the table until she cleans her plate (or takes a single bite, depending on how lenient her parents are).

It's dinnertime at Alice's house, but there's one particular food on her plate she just won't eat, no matter what (and it's almost always some sort of vegetable). Even after her parents have tried [[IfItTastesBadItMustBeGoodForYou extolling the health benefits of said food]], gone on a tangent about [[AppealToWorseProblems starving children in some far-off country]], and/or mentioned how hard one or both of them work to put food on the table, she still won't eat it. So they pull out the big guns: she can't leave the table until she cleans her plate.

* In more than one ''Manga/CrayonShinChan'' comic strip, Misae and Hiroshi sit on Shin-Chan's left and right side and forbid him to leave until he finishes all his bell peppers.

-->'''Professor Utonium''': Now, girls, eat your broccoli. It's exactly what growing superheroes need to charge up their powers! ''(flexes his muscles)'' Oh, it's packed with all kinds of vitamins and minerals, and mmm-mmm! It's so good for you!
-->'''Buttercup''': Too bad it tastes so nasty.
-->'''Bubbles''': You haven't even tasted it yet.
-->'''Blossom and Buttercup''': Shhh!
-->'''Professor Utonium''': Well, you're not leaving the table until your broccoli is all gone. And the only way to get rid of broccoli is to eat it all up, like this! ''(lifts broccoli toward his mouth with his fork)''
-->'''Girls''': EW! Professor! No!

* ''Literature/AmericanGirlsCollection'': In ''Meet Molly'', when Molly doesn't eat her mashed turnips at dinner, the family housekeeper Mrs. Gilford scolds her for wasting food during wartime and refuses to let her leave the table until she finishes them. She ends up sitting at the table for nearly three hours, but when her mother comes home from work, she is more understanding about the situation and adds sugar, cinnamon, and butter to the turnips to make them taste better. She also tells Molly a story from her own childhood, when her mother wouldn't let her leave the table until she'd finished her dinner of sardines on toast, so she secretly wrapped the sardines in a napkin and put them in her pocket. (Later, the family's cats smelled the sardines, pulled them out of her pocket and ate them all.)

* ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'' has a variation. In the episode "Tilly Style", Bill ends up growing too much zucchini, so he makes Cricket eat a bunch of it so that it doesn't go to waste. One day, Cricket ends up getting fed up with the zucchini, and refuses to eat it. However, Bill makes him, and tells him that he can't leave his chair until he eats it. However, Cricket interprets this the wrong way, and [[ExactWords ends up taking the chair with him wherever he goes]].

** In "[[Recap/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriendsS3E8CrimeAferCrime Crime After Crime]]", Bloo finds out that Frankie is making "it", a dish that he describes as vomit, so [[DeniedFoodAsPunishment he tries to get sent to bed without supper on purpose]]. Because Bloo is a moderate {{Jerkass}}, he CantGetInTroubleForNuthin and, thanks in part to Mr. Herriman trying to cover up his carrot addiction, he manages to get everyone ''except'' Bloo sent to their room without supper. Frankie takes particular delight in dumping the entire bowl of "it" onto Bloo's plate, since he's the only one who hasn't "gotten in trouble." During the closing credits, Frankie brings Bloo more of "it" to punish him for all the things he did to try getting in trouble, including filling the hallway with [[BananaPeel banana peels]] and spraying condiments on the couch.

* Geri Halliwell of Music/TheSpiceGirls writes in her autobiography how in her poor childhood home, she vomited up food she did not like, and was made to re-eat it, with her mother holding her jaw shut. Later, she had problems with bulimia.
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* In the poem "Summer Squash" by Donald Graves, the narrator is forced to sit at the table until he eats a bite of summer squash (described as a "watery mash with seeds and strings"), while his brother eats his entire portion just to rub his punishment in his face. His mom wants to finish the dishes and forces him to have a bite, so he holds it in until he leaves and spits it out. Finally, he tries to get rid of it by feeding it to his dog, but even she doesn't like it.

* In the poem "Summer Squash" by Donald Graves, the narrator is forced to sit at the table because he refuses to eat the summer squash his mom made for dinner (described as a "watery mash with seeds and strings"), while his brother eats his entire portion just to rub his punishment in his face. His mom wants to finish the dishes and forces him to have a bite, so he holds it in until he leaves and spits it out. Finally, he tries to get rid of it by feeding it to his dog, but even she doesn't like it.

'''Indices''': {{Youngsters}}, TheParentTrope, FoodTropes, FruitAndVegetableTropes, DisgustTropes, DoesNotLikeThisIndex, AliceAndBob, LengthTropes, PsychologicalCombat, RejectionIndex, RestrictionTropes