My whole life I've been a picky eater, and a rather stubborn person as well which made feeding me all the harder. I genuinely don't understand how my parents survived. Even at 20, I find myself eating the exact same things I ate when I was 10, with only a small percentage of growth.
My whole life, I've had to deal with hearing the exact same comments by everyone as well. Things like "God, you're so picky," "Eat something other than chicken fingers," or "We can't go there, she won't like anything." I've had people point it out to me at every meal for the past 20 years, I've heard the same comments about it by every person I meet or know. Food and eating meals was already such a key factor of anxiety in my life, but having negative perspectives shoved in my face every five seconds didn't really make the situation any better.
Growing up, I dreaded family meals because I knew someone was going to tease me about it and it makes me so nervous whenever my friends would invite me over for dinner because I knew I would feel so guilty having to tell their parents I didn't like whatever meal they were serving. Food, in general, was just a major source of anxiety in my life, and any picky eater will tell you the exact same thing.
And here's the truth about being a picky eater, that no one seems to understand: Picky eaters have zero control over what they like and don't like. It's not fair for people to tease them, belittle them and overall use that insecurity to make them feel bad about it. Especially because nobody wants to be picky.
Nobody wants to feel like they're ruining family dinner or a special occasion. Nobody wants one of their insecurities to be shoved in their face every time they eat in front of another person. No one wants to feel so anxious about going to new restaurants because they aren't sure if they'll be able to eat anything. Nobody wants to have a friend's mom make them something special and tell them, "I'm sorry, I just don't like it."
If you ask any picky eater in the world I can guarantee they will tell you they hate being picky, and they wish they liked more foods and were able to eat certain foods that all their friends like. Because the reality is we don't really control what our taste buds like and don't like — we either like something, or we don't.
I know a lot of people are probably thinking, "Well, all the picky eaters I know just refuse to try anything."
Picky eaters tend to be stubborn, which is a vice in my opinion. Sometimes when we refuse to try something, it's not because we know we're not going to like it, but because we know you're going to say something like: "See! That wasn't so bad!" or "WOW! I'm SO proud!" in an overly sarcastic manner. Reality check: you're just annoying when you do that, it doesn't make me want to try new foods and it's another comment we get literally every time we try something.
And to be honest, it's really not any of your business if someone wants to order chicken fingers again. If I'm being completely honest, most of the time we actually do know if we are going to like something or not, before we even try it. Just by smelling something we often know, and this is because your nasal passage is connected to your throat/mouth and thus, your taste buds.
Plus, I'm here to let you know that you're not original. We know we're picky, you don't have to point it out, you don't have to make a deprecating joke, don't roll your eyes at me when I tell you I don't like something, don't tell me to "just try it."
My point is that you should just leave picky eaters alone, let us eat our chicken fingers and mac and cheese because we're not bothering anyone over here. You're just being invasive and need to stay in your lane.
