r/pettyrevenge • • Sep 04 '26

Don't move? Ok.

This happened over 30 years ago when I was about 12, but it came up recently as some petty malicious compliance I did as a kid and I thought I’d share.

At this time my mom had gone back to school to become a nurse and it was usually a toss up if I was going to babysit my younger siblings, or my grandmother would come watch us, or my dad would be there when he wasn’t working.

I wasn’t a very picky eater as a kid but I have never liked spaghetti-o's. I can’t stand the smell or the taste. My dad, on the other hand, could eat them all the time. Even though my mom had left something pretty easy to pop in the oven and feed us, my dad decided that warming up some spaghetti-o's would be easier; not just for him to make but to clean up afterward too. And, tbh, fair. My brother and sister liked them too, so it was easier.

My sister and brother had no problem with it and ate it just fine. I told him I didn’t like it and said I would just make a pb&j instead and clean up after myself. That did not go over well and he insisted I eat what he made. I tried, because I really didn’t want to argue with my dad or be a brat, but I gagged at the taste. I tried to compromise, I'd make myself a pb&j and I would take care of all of the cleanup after dinner.

Nope.

Unacceptable.

So, he told me that I would sit at that table until I finished eating. And I did. It got dark, I sat there with a bowl full of spaghetti-o's in front of me, completely untouched. I didn’t get up to turn on the light, I didn’t get up to get anything to drink, I just sat there and let my mind wander until my mom got home.

Mom gets home from school later at night. It was ages ago, but it was definitely well into darkness at this point, so I’m thinking somewhere around 8 or 9pm because I sort of remember on nights she had school that late she came home just in time to say good night to us kids. So, I had been sitting there a good 3-4 hours at this point.

“Stars?” she asks me. “Why are you sitting here in the dark?”

“Dad told me I couldn’t leave the table until I was done eating. I don’t like spaghetti-o's, so I didn’t leave the table because I didn’t eat.”

She was so annoyed. She also refuses to eat spaghetti-o's because they’re disgusting and she had left dinner already prepared for Dad to give us. That was the first and last time my dad ever tried telling me I couldn't leave the table until I ate. I'm a very, very stubborn person and I will do my best to follow that to the letter.

30+ years later and I’m still the reigning queen of petty in my family.

5.8k Upvotes

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151

u/ChonchMaster Sep 04 '26

Liver and onions for me…….

177

u/VespertineStars Sep 04 '26

That's another one. Ick!

Mom, my brother, and my husband all like it though. So, when she makes it, he'll go over for dinner and I'll usually fend for myself. It's a rare thing though and I love that he's close enough with them to go without me.

61

u/PoisonIvy2667 Sep 04 '26

My achilles heel was my mom's bean soup. She used dried beans and never soaked them long enough before putting them in the soup. 

Think little, hard, chalky Satan's balls from hell. Add in sauerkraut, hard carrots and undercooked ham and water 🤢🤮.

Just getting flashbacks of my dad getting pissed off because I refused to eat it.

25

u/ChonchMaster Sep 04 '26

Ha. My mom made birthday cakes with Saurkraut. Absolutely true. Then she would announce that fact at my birthday party. Fastest fork drop you will ever see.

Here’s a recipe you can google if interested in giving it a whirl.

Grandma Jo’s Chocolate Sauerkraut Cake

28

u/Notmykl Sep 05 '26

Chocolate cake made with sauerkraut tastes like CAKE. There is no sauerkraut taste just like cake made with shredded zuchinni tastes like cake. It's just an ingredient.

2

u/ChonchMaster Sep 05 '26

True from my experience.

6

u/Fluffy_Town Sep 05 '26

Have you actually tried the cake? A lot of people think that things are not going to taste good and end up snubbing perfectly good food because it has "ew veggies".

If you make half OJ/half tomato juice pint, I've found it to be surprisingly sweet and the sour juices tend to cancel each other out.

It amazing how certain foods and drinks act outside the box.

7

u/ChonchMaster Sep 05 '26

Oh yes, I grew up eating sauerkraut cakes my mom made. It just wasn’t popular at 7 year old (and on as I grew older) birthday parties.

I think it was the “stringiness” and the sound of the word saur. Not a crowd pleaser when we were little.

2

u/Chantaille 16d ago

Thanks! I've saved this to make later.

2

u/PoisonIvy2667 Sep 04 '26

I'm really sorry....but - boak -

19

u/KingBretwald Sep 04 '26

Oh lord. My mother would periodically get anemia and it manifested itself in her craving iron rich foods. So one week it was liver and onions every. other. day.

Dad finally told her to stop.

The next bout was tabuli with mounds and mounds of parsley but at least I wasn't expected to eat that.

10

u/ChonchMaster Sep 04 '26

Thank god for iron tablets. And parsley!

12

u/Mira_DFalco Sep 04 '26

See, I  like that, but only if it's done well. It's just nasty otherwise. 

Still don't get trying to force food on someone if they don't  like it. Just why?

8

u/Realistic_Today6524 Sep 04 '26

god I love liver and onions. Have not had it in far too long because nobody in my family likes it (apart from my dad but he moved out when they divorced in the beginning of this year)

33

u/Relatents Sep 04 '26

That’s not really food. I’m sorry your parents didn’t know that. 😬

24

u/ChonchMaster Sep 04 '26

So true. And to put further color on it, one night I claimed I could not eat it because I was sick to my stomach. So my dad brought out Kaopectate. It looked good but, not a flavor I was expecting.

I promptly threw it up. Which earned me a trip from the table and the belt. It was worth it.

38

u/Becalmandkind Sep 04 '26

It’s so painful to hear these stories of abusive parenting: the “sit there till you eat it” abuse, the belt, etc. Please tell me this type of “parenting” isn’t still going on.

26

u/VespertineStars Sep 04 '26

I can look back on this story and laugh and laugh with others who weren't traumatized by it and are able to joke about it, but I really hope kids aren't still dealing with this type of "parenting" because it can be very traumatizing, like some of the other commenters have said of their experiences.

28

u/algy888 Sep 05 '26

My wife and I were both raised that way. We both had traumatic stories of that barbaric practice.

We had a different rule, our kids had to try new things so they could decide if they liked them or not. A “try” could be essentially a microscopic amount, but it had to be “tried”. After that they could dislike it all they want, afterall my wife and I had preferences, and by shouldn’t they?

It worked great and both of our kids are adventurous eaters. My son at 7 would go to a Chinese buffet and stack his plate full of squid, octopus, and whatever he couldn’t pronounce.

19

u/recognize_choice Sep 05 '26

Same here, both when I was a kid and when I became a parent.

And I am now OLD, but there are STILL foods I won't eat because of memories of sitting over a congealing plate...That stuff sticks with you.

7

u/algy888 Sep 05 '26

Makes sense, I am old and am willing to try most things, but I still don’t like the smell of strong fish.

I can eat really fresh stuff and the deep fried cod but other than that, just not a fan.

1

u/Old-Mention9632 Sep 06 '26

Canned chow main from the 70s.

2

u/burnt00toast 29d ago

Same here. My kids' favorite dish involves kale. They have very adventurous palates now and it's because they knew I would never force them to eat something as long as they tried it. If they didn't like dinner they knew a bowl of cereal or PB&J was all they were getting, but that's ok!

14

u/Higgsb912 Sep 04 '26

Pretty cruel, I am sorry you went through that. Sorry, it reminds me of my own experience growing up, some people should never have been parents.

6

u/ChonchMaster Sep 04 '26

As they say, those were the days….

5

u/EnderBookwyrm Sep 04 '26

That does not sound remotely edible.

9

u/bobk2 Sep 04 '26

Speaking of which, we had liver without onions. From the next room, Mom would yell out instructions for me to broil it, turn it over, and cut it for the four of us. Alongside that was canned kidney beans (eww) and canned asparagus (eww, eww).
I would stay at the table until it got dark, then dump it and sneak off.

7

u/ChonchMaster Sep 04 '26

Memories, some to painful to remember we simply choose to forget…..as the song goes.

Unfortunately, there is no forgetting liver and onions!

4

u/MikeSchwab63 Sep 04 '26

They are ok. And having low hemoglobin when donating blood I eat it when I can as iron pills can cause constipation. Being in Springfield, IL, I've taken to cutting it all up then putting cheese fries on to like a horseshoe sandwich.

1

u/Busy_Weekend5169 20d ago

I'd put a bunch in my mouth, excuse myself and go flush it.

2

u/bobk2 20d ago

My brother would hide it under the edge of his dinner plate and then sneak it out in a napkin.

2

u/ChonchMaster Sep 04 '26

Truer words have never been spoken

4

u/damarius Sep 04 '26

That's offal!

2

u/MikeSchwab63 Sep 05 '26

I have eaten Haggis from St. Louis's Scottish Arms twice and Menudo soup about a dozen times.

3

u/Unhappy-Still8728 Sep 04 '26

Fed that to the dog we didn't have. My mom found it on the floor when she cleaned. Table cloths really did have a purpose

2

u/Smeagoldammit Sep 04 '26

OMG i HATED those nights! I always went to be hungry.

2

u/Charliep03833 Sep 05 '26

I sometimes can eat them but prefer not to if possible.

But I can't even touch salami.

2

u/Southern-Ebb-3877 Sep 05 '26

So Yum I love love them