Why Some Children Reject a Parent's Food, Then Return to It
Launch library · evergreen read
It is a common pattern among children of migrant families, a period, often in adolescence, of resisting or even rejecting a parent's cooking in favour of more familiar local food. This is often followed years later by a genuine, sometimes urgent, desire to reconnect with exactly what was once rejected so firmly.
The rejection is rarely about the food itself so much as a broader wish to fit in, to seem less different from peers during a particularly self-conscious stage of life. That wish often fades once the pressure of adolescence has passed and a person feels more settled and secure in who they actually are.
The eventual return to that food, sometimes attempted awkwardly, without a parent's guidance if too much time has passed, tends to carry real emotional weight. It becomes a deliberate reclaiming of something once quietly, apologetically set aside during a period when fitting in mattered more than anything else.