My two children’s eating personalities are as different as day and night.

My son exemplifies the spirit of eating to live. He 废寝忘食 (fèi qǐn wàng shí). Let me unpack this idiom for you:

•⁠ ⁠废 (fèi) - neglect •⁠ ⁠寝 (qǐn) - sleep •⁠ ⁠忘 (wàng) - forget •⁠ ⁠食 (shí) - food

As you can infer from the meaning of the four individual words, it refers to someone who forgets to sleep and eat. I think its meaning can be broadened to refer to people who are preoccupied with something and immersed in their own word. Which describes my son.

He is passionate about his toys, and typically fiddles around with fixing parts together or arranging his empire or telling make-believe stories. Eating is the last thing on his mind; food just doesn’t appeal to him.

Even though he is the older child, I feed him more regularly than his younger sister. For real. He carries on chewing distractedly while playing with his toys.

On the other hand, my daughter lives to eat. It’s not just the deafening screams when she doesn’t get her food yet; it’s the way she wolfs down her meals. In Chinese, we term such behaviour as 狼吞虎咽 (láng tūn hǔ yàn).

As a sign of how some observations transcend cultures, let’s have a look at the meaning of the individual words. •⁠ ⁠狼 (lán) - wolf •⁠ ⁠吞 (tūn) - swallow •⁠ ⁠虎 (hǔ) - tiger •⁠ ⁠咽 (yàn) - gulp

It seems that the wolf makes an appearance in Mandarin too. In any case, this idiom literally means to swallow like a wolf and gulp like a tiger. But of course, in polite company, we don’t point at someone and say that she is eating like a wild beast. Not even if your daughter consumes like one.

My daughter truly eats fast and enthusiastically. She can barely speak any words, yet she clearly articulates the phrase “wantsomemore”. The way she says it, it’s like the three words have combined into one. Not only that, she angrily protests if I want to feed her. By sheer willpower, she leverages chopsticks to shove food into her mouth. And long after her brother has stopped eating and moved on to something else, she still doggedly keeps at consuming, her joy evident in her mannerisms as she nods her head vigorously and gestures determinedly at the dishes.

This also means that I usually have to change her clothes after a meal because they will be stained due to her free-spirited, mannerless eating. Oh well.

How is your child’s eating personality like?