Pet Peeve: The Fading Pet Peeve (People Watching You Eat)

I ate those alone recently. 

Food is an essential need. It provides the nutrition we need to live. All food provides some kind of nutrition, which means it's okay for us to eat the way we want. Some of us eat everything (and by everything I meant everything). Some us are very picky eaters. Some of us don't care who we eat around, how much we eat, or where we're eating it. Others, like myself, love to eat in privacy which brings me to a fading pet peeve of mine.

It's the pet peeve of people watching your every bite. Ugh, it still frustrates me a little.

There used to be this saying "Don't watch me watch tv." I forget exactly where it comes from, but I've always felt this way about food. When it comes to food, there's something extraordinarily wrong with someone watching you take every single bite of the food on your plate. What possesses a person to watch you that closely? Do they want to try your food, but are too afraid to ask? Are they mad because you're wasting food while the children of Africa are starving? All the commercials say the African children have no nutrition. Or could it be they just like to watch you eat? I don't know what it is, but it annoys me.

It annoys me so much that a while ago I developed this crazy habit. That habit involved sneaking and eating late at night. Well, it wasn't all about sneaking. Most of the time I just became hungry really late at night. However, it was a beautiful experience because no one was watching how many bites of a chicken I took. No one was seeing how many of the pancakes I was going to eat. No one was there to watch me stuff my face with popcorn, chips, crackers, cookies, etc. The experience was ruined the day my dad let me know that I didn't have to sneak and eat food. I didn't know they could hear me.

Anyway, I've had a history of people watching every single bite of food I took and it annoyed me, but the pet peeve is starting to fade. In the struggle to star status I now understand these moments are unavoidable. If you don't believe me ask Beyonce how it feels to be pregnant. She just announced that shit two days ago and people are treating her as if she could give birth any day now.

Point is I'm getting over it, but please don't take this as a invite to stare into my mouth or the mouth of any other future stars.