Eat That or the Chicken Will Die

That’s the sentence that will be said to children who don’t want to eat his food in Indonesia. Well, I don’t remember my parents said that to me. Maybe it’s because I like eating and there was never a leftover from my plate. So that’s why I don’t need that sentence. Or… my parents don’t like to give the wrong impression about food and death.

Let’s think about this. What’s the connection between the leftover food and a death chicken? The purpose of this sentence of course to make the kids eat all of his food. If we want to know about the origin of this sentence… well, I do have a theory.

I think that sentence come from a suburb family/family that lives in the village. I mean, nowadays, people who live in the big city don’t have any chicken. So, I don’t think their kids will care about a chicken that is not his. Moreover, if the chicken is dead, I think the kids will be happy since he will get a fried chicken as his next food.

So, this is the conclusion of my theory about the origin of this habit: one family has chicken as their pet. Then, when the parents see that their kid didn’t finish eating, they simply said: son, if you don’t finish that, your chicken will be dead. Do you want that to be happened? And just like that, the kid finished his eating. At that time, maybe one of their neighbors overheard that and he tried that to his kids too. And bravo! It’s effective. That’s why this habit is inherited from generation to generation.