As most parents will tell you, children tend to go through phases of eating.
Sometimes, they’ll be more adventurous with their plates, and other times they’ll be extremely picky.
Sometimes, they’ll eat everything that’s served to them and then want seconds, and other times, they might eat a whole strawberry.
Parents at times have to resort to simpler foods, just to make sure their children are eating enough, admitted “Am I the A**hole?” (AITA) subReddit.
Redditor homecook1000 was surprised when their son brought over a friend to their home, unannounced, but they were slightly more taken aback when they found out the friend was a picky eater.
But the Original Poster (OP) was much more taken aback when the parent of the child lashed out about what they served for dinner.
They asked the sub:
“AITA for only feeding one child frozen food?”
The OP was surprised when their son brought a friend over after school.
“My son is Indian, and his friend, who is White, are both 9.”
“My son brought his friend over after school on the bus. I messaged his mom and asked if this was okay and how late he was staying.”
“She asked if he could stay until 10. I serve dinner around 8, so he would be eating with us.”
The OP did their best to cater to the other child’s needs.
“I cook a lot of Indian cuisine in my house because that’s what I grew up making.”
“My son told me his friend was picky and asked if I could make him something else.”
“I keep fries and chicken nuggets for when my son has picky friends over.”
But the friend’s mother didn’t think that was good enough.
“So we all sit to eat, and my son’s friend seems happy with the nuggets, and they went to play after dinner.”
“The boy’s mom picked him up a little after 9.”
“I got a text later, asking why I fed her son frozen food when I cooked a fresh dinner for everyone else.”
“I told her my son said the boy wouldn’t eat what I was making.”
“She said I should have made him something also instead of just getting freezer food.”
“I told her I provided free childcare without notice, and her kid chose not to eat what everyone else ate.”
“I continued that when I was a child, my mom didn’t offer anyone alternatives to what was made, so he’s lucky I accommodated him.”
“She told me she wouldn’t let her son stay with a child abuser anymore.”
“AITA?”
Fellow Redditors weighed in:
- NTA: Not the A**hole
- YTA: You’re the A**hole
- ESH: Everybody Sucks Here
- NAH: No A**holes Here
Some were furious on the OP’s behalf.
“This is all after being all but abandoned by his mother no less. What if OP couldn’t watch him? That’s incredibly late to leave a child after giving no notice.” – ChaosofaMadHatter
“Seriously, when I was 9, my bedtime was way before 10 PM. If anyone wants to start questioning the way her kid is treated, we can start with the kid’s mother who is OK with picking him up that late at night, and goodness knows what time he would actually be in bed sleeping.” – Either_Coconut
“NTA.”
“I spent well over an hour tonight grilling some chicken and veg. I’ll admit the veg was not the best, being a mix of parsnips, turnips, beets, and carrots. (I had never eaten parsnips nor turnips before, wanted to try them). But the chicken had my homemade rub, and was finished off with sweet baby rays, and they were to die for.”
“I got from my kids that ‘they’re too spicy’ or ‘they’re too sweet’ or ‘I don’t like the bones in it,’ etc. The rule in my house is dinner is dinner, you don’t HAVE to eat it, but I won’t make you anything else.”
“But it reminds me why I cave and bake in the oven meals that the whole prep is opening a box/bag, and preheating the oven. The other night we had breaded fish, onion rings, and fries. I called the onion rings and ketchup the veg and just didn’t care.” – aroundincircles
“NTA.”
“I cook one meal for everyone in my family. I try to take likes and dislikes into account, and ask for input when I make my weekly meal plan, but if people don’t want to eat what I’ve cooked, they get bread and spread, because I’m not running a restaurant.”
“The one exception to this rule is that one of my kids won’t eat chicken for psychological reasons, while everyone else loves it, so when I cook chicken, he gets fish fingers. From the freezer.” – HobbitSeamstress
“Bet she’d accuse him of child abuse if he had served the kid Indian food, too. Because any Indian food = TOO SPICY = INEDIBLE = YOU STARVED MY CHILD.”
“There’s no way to win with this kind of person.” – TrudieKockenlocker
“NTA. I love it. ‘Because you gave my child chicken nuggets, I will no longer be dumping him on you without notice for free childcare until 10 pm on a school day.'”
“Is she expecting OP to be upset by this? Entitled people are so funny.” – Inconceivable44
“NTA That is pretty entitled behavior on his mom’s part. Not only did she not clear it with you first before basically forcing you to watch her kid for the night, but then she had the nerve to question how you feed this child that you didn’t know was coming.” – Impossible-Wolf-3839
“NTA. If OP talks to her again, I would suggest she accuse that other mom of being racist because she doesn’t seem to serve her child any foods from other cultures or at least teaches them to try another family’s traditional meals and expects an Indian family to make a dinner catered to a white kids palate.”
“Would she get Indian food if OP’s son went over to her house? Very doubtful.”
“Also, what kind of mom doesn’t know where her 9-year-old is or who doesn’t speak to the other parent before letting her child go over to some kid’s house? I’m really confused about how this even happened?”
“My children would never get off the bus with a friend in tow without arranging it first? And I hope this wasn’t a school night because picking a 9-year-old up at 10 pm and then expecting them to get up in the morning means you don’t care if your kid gets enough sleep.”
“Sounds like there a good case of neglect going here and it isn’t the OP.” – NoBat7364
Others openly mocked the “child abuser” comment.
“NTA and HAHAHAHAH. Child abuser? INCREDIBLE. Glad this woman showed you who she is so you can 100% avoid her forever.”
“I feel bad for the kid, however. His mom is a nut job.” – IllustriousPomelo152
“Only abusive parents feed their kids frozen nuggets.”
“The rest of us at least cook them first.”
“(This is a sarcastic comment, in case that wasn’t clear.)” – not_a_muggle
“A CHILD ABUSER BECAUSE HE ATE FROZEN FOOD ONCE.” – MxXylda
“So turns out all my siblings and I were suffering abuse when we tucked into our potato waffles and nuggets.”
“You live and learn.”
“NTA. Laughably so.” – Daveii_captain
“The child was forced to eat frozen chicken nuggets!!! They could have eaten Dino-shaped nuggets for goodness sakes!”
“For real though, OP, NTA.”
“Honestly doing perfect as someone who is a picky eater even now at 30. I can guarantee I wouldn’t have eaten your home-cooked meal (it’s not you, it’s me) but would have appreciated some nugs.” – Vyce223
“I fed my 2-year-old and my 40-year-old husband dino nuggets two nights ago. Will CPS take both of them away?” – Clairegeit
“I met a neighbor for the first time at a party, and it turned out she knew my 9-year-old son and had given him authentic Indian food for dinner.”
“The story behind it was that he was invited along to a birthday party as a companion for the birthday child’s older brother. They all went bowling, and then the neighbor I never met, who also had kids at the party, invited everyone back for dinner. She remembered my son as an exceptionally good eater.”
“It would never have occurred to either of us to criticize each other’s parenting, even if she had said he didn’t want the Indian and he had chosen nuggets! NTA, OP.” – DrunkOnRedCordial
Not only was the subReddit furious on the OP’s behalf, but they had a fun time joking around about what the other mother said to the OP, as well.
It’s alarming that the other child’s mom was comfortable with her son going to another child’s house without preplanning the situation, let alone to have her son stay so late on such short notice, during which at least one meal was expected.
But referring to the OP as a child abuser by far was the worst offense. The visiting child hardly seemed bothered by it, as he both ate the food and played afterward, and it was also food that was provided free of charge and on short notice.
If the OP really qualified as abusive over an easy, frozen meal, there would be far more convicted child abusers in the world right now.