A 59-year-old grandmother has sparked furious online debate on Reddit’s notorious AITA forum by asking the masses if she was wrong for sending her youngest grandchild to bed “hungry” because the five-year-old refused to eat her vegetarian cooking.
The grandmother, whose username is MamaBear5738, revealed that her 31-year-old daughter, her 38-year-old son-in-law and their four children (aged between five and nine) have been living with her for some time.
The grandmother also divulged that she is a vegetarian who cooks the majority of dinners in the house and that her daughter cooks “a few meals a week,” and usually makes something else for the kids if they don’t want to eat grandma’s vegetarian food.
“I’m vegetarian, so I don’t cook meat in the house, but her youngest is picky and usually doesn’t like my food,” wrote the grandmother.
The incident at the heart of this story began when the grandmother’s daughter went out with friends and didn’t discuss any dinner plans relating to her children before she left. She also did not indicate what time she would be home and wouldn’t answer the grandmother’s phone calls.
“I’d just made rice and steamed veggies for myself because I wasn’t too hungry or in the mood to cook properly,” wrote the grandmother.
I offered some [to] the children and the two older ones ate. The 5-year-old was upset, though, and asked if I could make chicken nuggets for him.”
While the grandmother did have the ingredients to make chicken nuggets, she told readers that she “didn’t feel good about cooking meat” and told the child he could wait until his mum returned.
In response, the frustrated five-year-old threw his plate of grandma’s cooked food on the floor. The grandmother was then forced to clean up the broken ceramic pieces of the plate and made the angry five-year-old help her clean up the rice from the floor.
According to the grandmother, she eventually got the kids to sleep before her daughter returned at around 11pm. However, the daughter was not happy upon hearing what had transpired.
“My daughter was really upset that I let him [go to] sleep hungry, and I said it was one evening, and he’s not starving,” wrote the grandmother.
The grandmother concluded the argument by telling her daughter that she thinks “she coddles him” too much, before asking the general public if they think she was wrong in this situation.
This question drew a massive response from readers resulting in over 1,800 comments in the first day alone. Readers were evenly split in venting their dismay at both the children’s mother for leaving the house without organising her children’s dinner and the grandmother for sending the 5-year-old to be hungry.
Following this criticism, the grandmother revealed in the comment section that she did feed the boy some crackers and offered him a sandwich which he declined at 5pm. However, he was still awake at 9pm and waiting for his mother when he turned down the vegetarian meal despite claims that he was hungry and wanted chicken nuggets.
With so much online discussion regarding who (if anyone) was right and wrong in this equation, we ask our esteemed HelloCare readers to share their thoughts on the matter in the comment section.
Good on you, grandma, and shame on the mother for letting her kid get to the age of five without having introduced him to vegetables by that age. That amounts to neglect, in my book. And a violent outburst and breaking the plate of food on the floor? What kind of people is this woman raising here? Maybe she should spend less time on selfish outings and more time practicing some good parenting
There are a lot of hidden issues here. The relationship between Grandma and daughter. The behaviour of the 5-year-old grandchild who threw his plate on the floor. Whilst the family live at the grandma’s house they should respect the rules. There is a reason why they are living with Grandma. And let’s face it, it is not the first time someone has sent their child to bed because they refused to eat the meal they were served.
If the kid was really hungry he would have eaten the veggies ;). But I had a different mother trying to educate, not to please. Respect and do not waste food.