[QUOTE=jjimm]
They’re not Irish are they?
The character of Mrs Doyle is based firmly in truth.
Will you have a cup of tea? Ah go on. You will. You will. You will. You will. You will. You will. You will you will you will you will you will you will you will you will you will you will you will you will you will you WILL! YOU WILL!
[/QUOTE]
You’ve just reminded me why I enjoyed that show so much.
My mom is Scandinavian, so I grew up with people offering me food as soon as I stepped in the door to their house. If you’re really hungry, you answer “yes, sure, why of course I’ll have [whatever it is they’re offering],” and if you’re not as hungry, you wait to take the bait until after the first or second offering. If you’re really not hungry, you accept the smallest thing you know you can get away with, which is normally a small glass of water/soda/milk. I’m okay with this model, if only for the fact that I know what to expect and that it’ll stop after a few offers.
My FMIL, on the other hand, will only offer me things like sweets that she knows are fattening and of little nutritional value. It’s quite bizarre, as she’ll push sweets and coffee drinks from Starbucks on me when it’s not mealtime, but then try to push salad and fruit on me at the dinner table. But she’ll only ever take no for an answer the first time on the healthy stuff. 
This, however, has me baffled, as I rarely want to sit down and pig out on sweets.
Neither group will comment on what you’re eating, but will be more than happy to chat with you while your mouth is full.
[QUOTE=GingerOfTheNorth]
See, as I was reading this thread I thought about offering food to guests. It’s not really something we pushed, nor do I now. My mother grew up the youngest of seven in a family with nothing, sometimes not enough to eat (often, actually) and wearing dresses made from flour and sugar sacks… She now spends and spends and overspends on groceries (it’s just her and Dad now) and is overweight. However, pushing food on someone just was not done.
And, she’s Icelandic, so I don’t know how that works.
[/QUOTE]
My mom’s Icelandic too, and she does the “prepare a feast” for two people most of the time when I or anyone else visits. She also never really got over the whole “stuff yourself until you can’t eat anymore” habit that she might have picked up as a child, but her family seems to have been better off than yours. (Living in a flat in Reykjavik and having a father in the government is a lot easier than working on a farm or in an outlying area before Iceland became more wealthy as a country.) She has only recently stopped stockpiling canned food like WWIII is going to happen, but now she freezes containers of milk for when hurricane season hits.
jsgoddess, I would have to admit I would be startled if someone asked me if I wanted to eat/drink something all day long, if only for the fact that I’ve never gotten asked more than three or four times if I wanted something. The closest I’ve ever gotten to that is my FMIL asking me if I want the same thing she offered me before three hours later. I have, however, gotten the “are you sure you want to try this?” comment from a friend’s parent when I offered to try gefilte fish. I should have listened to them, as I regretted trying it, but made polite motions to actually eat most of the piece I was given.
