In the post on keeping needs small, I mentioned the aversion to waste that our parents inculcate in us. A few days ago, I noticed a strange impetus that caused me to eat beyond the point where I was actually quite full. You see, there was a quantity of food left on my plate and, blame it on my now hard wired habits; I could not bring myself to leave that food uneaten. Somewhere in my subconscious, memories of my mother insisting that I finish everything on my plate were firing some neurons that caused my hands to move involuntarily to shovel the remaining food into my mouth.
It is obviously virtuous to take only as much on one's plate as one can finish. The habit once formed not only builds discipline, it builds a disdain for waste.
But this leads to quite a paradox. Food left on the plate would be a waste. But by pushing it through your alimentary canal, are we really not wasting it too? Not to mention the ill-effects on our health and well-being.
The discipline drilled into us makes us unable to make rational decisions in such situations. Even when we realize that we have made an error of judgment, we feel compelled to carry through with what is evidently a bad decision.
We might need to think about how we can teach our children the values of frugality and discipline and yet show them how and when to re-evaluate their decisions as events unfold. I suspect this is not going to be easy.
1 comment:
I guess making us eat the excess food was our parents' way of negative reinforcement. How else would you train your child not to take more onto their plate than they require?
Post a Comment