I don’t know what the vegetable was at your house growing up that your mother told you to eat before you could leave the dinner table. For our son, I remember the stickler being green English peas. We created a system in which he had to eat at least as many as his accumulated years on earth. So in fourth grade (age 9), he had to eat nine peas before being dismissed from the dinner table. I recall one night where he sat and pushed those nine little peas round and round for an hour after dinner was done. The dishwasher was running and he was still staring at the peas. In retrospect we probably should have negotiated a substitute veggie if they offended him that much.
