- English translation
Children raised on plenty come flooding toward their food.
- Literal wording
The children of spending come with the gushing.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying links lavish spending on children to their appetites. Youngsters who are constantly supplied with plenty come to expect abundance and throw themselves at food, growing used to eating greedily rather than moderately. Indulgence shapes the habit.
The two key words, nafaqa (spending, upkeep) and dafaqa (a pouring or flooding flow), rhyme, so cause and effect sound bound together. Reading the flood as hungry eagerness is figurative. The lesson is that how freely a child is provided for sets the measure of what it will later crave.
- When it is used
Said when children brought up with lavish provision keep demanding more food and treats, or eat with greedy eagerness. As a wry warning to freely spending parents, it can sound like a reproach to them or to the children, so it may come across as critical.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: Children raised on plenty come flooding toward their food.