Same here. Gen X in my world was: 'ya eat what mom made. If you don’t, you’ll GET hungry enough to eat it." Why I started cooking in the first place. Hated tuna casserole.
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Fourteen!!! FFS. That’s both too old to be insisting on chicken and too young to be dictating what other people get to eat.
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Agree, fullheartedly.
This was around 20 years ago.
The 3 of us (2 Silent Gen and 1 Gen X) had 7 guests (4 Boomers and 3 Millenials) for the Christmas holidays that year. We did everything to make them comfortable, then I snapped on New Year’s Day when the 17 yo started clearing the dining room table and scraping the good plates at the table, while my mom was still eating, after my mom had been cooking all day.
The 17 yo Millenial ran off in tears , then her sisters followed to console her. The next day, the Boomer aunt and 3 Millenial daughters were giving me the silent treatment and sitting at the far end of the table when the 10 of us went out for a buffet breakfast. My uncle missed the whole thing and was emailing around to find out what my tone had been like when I put the 17 yo into tears.
All 31 yo me had said to was “Clearing the table while somebody is eating is rude. Sit down.” 
I hate family gatherings with a vengeance.
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So many co-workers are doing it, sometimes you can read it in blogs, discussions boards etc.
My youngest is about to hit 20, so that might have something to do with it. I did eventually remember a playmate long ago whose mom used to let him get away with eating just a few things (cheese pizza, mac-n-cheese, stuff like that).
I can’t either.
So many co-workers are doing it, sometimes you can read it in blogs, discussions boards etc.
I certainly haven’t read it on this one! Maybe they are younger families than I know. My youngest is 31, and doesn’t have kids yet.
That’s why I prefer spending time with friends. I can choose those 
My mother used to strain my brother’s orange juice (he hated “pieces”), and pick the lima beans out of his mixed vegetables. When he left home, he somehow managed to cope (possibly by avoiding orange juice and mixed vegetables).
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Oh, I forgot other quirks. When my mother made tuna salad, my grandmother’s portion had no celery, my brothers’s and father’s had no mayo, and hers and mine had both. When she made salmon croquettes, my father just had the salmon out of the can.
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My family was always great, some of my in-laws a horror show. Unfortunately I have no family left.
One thing that annoys me is the concept of “hangry”. I can understand it in a 10-year-old, but not in a 30-year-old.
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I priced my half-pasta at about 70% of the whole because almost all half-pasta orders were actually people just downsizing their main course choice.
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Here’s a take from a restaurant in Japan.
(Basically, on the check, the waitress specified whether a male or female was eating a certain set menu.)
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A Pho restaurant near me has done a one up on the usual Large / Small choice i was familiar with.
Pho Ly offers S/M/L options and the Pho is pretty good, too. I actually ordered a small recenrly and ut was a nice light lunch.
I like getting two meals for the price of one sometimes, but w Pho it is less of a treat.
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I wish more pho places did that. I love pho & ramen (it’s noodle soup — how could one not???), but usually find the portions way too large. I’m also baffled by the option to add MOAR noodz or meat, as if what is served wasn’t enough.
But I’m no sumo wrestler or football player 
I feel for you. I’ve hosted thanksgiving for about 20 years and we never had a blowup. I have to remember these blessings.
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I see hangry behaviour in older friends and family all the time.
I bring extra snacks in my purse or backpack, to hand them out, to pre-empt hangry tantrums.
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Some restaurants here in Canada have a $10 or $15 splitting fee, when people share one main that might cost $50- $60. The fee wouldn’t apply if 2 people were ordering 2 mains and splitting those 2 mains.
I used to order 2 appetizers, or an appetizer and a salad, but lately , many appetizers are fibre-free calorie bombs. I would be better off eating half a salad and half a main, if I want to feel better (less sluggish) at the end of my meal.
I’m fine with paying a splitting fee. Restaurants have a lot of overhead.
A blowup is not necessary for a screwup; it can take less. There used to be that damned in-law who always screwed up Christmas, some way or the other.
Yeah, the overdrinking, political talking know-it-all died years ago in our family. Things have been smooth ever since.
