Ever had a mealtime showdown with your parents over food you just couldn’t stomach?

This tale takes us back to a time when a simple directive turned into a culinary catastrophe.

Brace yourself for a hilarious lesson in childhood logic gone wrong in the following story.

“Just put some salt in it.”

When I was young (think 5-6 years old), my parents had a “don’t leave the table unless you’ve eaten all your food,” rule.

I was picky and I hated tomatoes.

My mom would often make the rest of the family grilled cheese and tomato soup, but I would get chicken noodle. On this day, there was no chicken noodle, so I got canned tomato soup.

It was a food battle from the start.

I told my mom before she served that I only wanted the grilled cheese (honestly, a sandwich and a bowl of soup was too much for my tiny body anyway).

She gave me both anyway.

I moaned and groaned about how gross the soup was for a while.

My mom told me not to get up until I finished my food. So I stayed at the table.

Stuck with a bowl of tomato dread.

An hour later, my mom walked in and find me still at the table.

She asked why I was still there and I reminded her that I wasn’t allowed up until I eat and I didn’t like the soup.

She told me “just put some salt in it.”

Well, I was young. I didn’t know the difference between salt and sugar. So I made an educated guess….

My mom put a bit of the stuff in the white bowl into my cereal in the morning to make it taste better…That must be salt!

I poured several teaspoons of “salt” into my soup. It was still gross.

The mystery of the seasoning saga.

Ok….it must be the other one. I kept adding salt and tasting until the shaker ran out.

The soup was even more gross (gee, I wonder why?).

My mom came back in after another hour and again asks why I’m still there. I said “I tried adding salt, it didn’t help.”

After two hours of refusing to eat the soup, my mom finally excused me.

Victory by standing your (tiny) ground.

As I was leaving the kitchen, my mom shrieks and asks what I put in my soup and what is all this goop at the bottom of the bowl.

I just told her “you said to put some salt in it!”

What started as a battle over dinner turned into a cherished family story, proving that sometimes, even the simplest solutions can lead to unexpected (and gross) outcomes.

What does Reddit think? Let’s find out.

Most people shared their own food stories. This person thought pepper was the solution to cold sausages!

This person’s dad took ‘finish your food’ to the extreme.

This commenter believes parents shouldn’t be so hypocritical.

This person’s grandpa had strict rules about finishing meals.

Nothing like sharing in food misery.

A moment for the child who learned the hard way that not all white food additives are created equal.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.