One’s daily eating habits, much like other things in life, are individual choice. Some are prefer a varied omnivore diet and others—for either health benefits or personal beliefs—choose not to take part in the meat and animal product industry.
Whichever the case, it would typically be expected for the family to support or at least accept their loved ones diet choice. One Redditor noticed a difference how their aunt reacted when it came to his vegan bother. User C00kieCrumbl3s turned to the “Am I the A**hole” (AITA) subreddit for opinions on how he and his brother handled the situation.
They asked:
“AITA for tricking my Auntie?”
The Original Poster (OP) explained the prank:
“I have a brother who’s a big softie. The kind of person who cries at the movies. When we were kids, we went to a county fair and saw a pig that was in poor condition (too fat to move) and ever since then, he hasn’t eaten meat.”
”When he moved out of our parents’ house, he stopped using eggs and milk too (something about mothers). He’s also pretty craftsy, and every holiday season, he brings these highly decorated cookies or filled chocolates.”
“Everybody loves them, but we have this one Auntie who thinks she’s Ron Swanson or something.”
”She’ll hem and haw like ‘something’s missing’ ‘the REAL version is better’ ‘it tasted funny.’ But I know for a fact she likes them, because she sneaks multiples when my brother leaves the room.”
”This same woman will pester him over dinner, waving forkfuls of meat under his nose and making jabs at his masculinity. Her grousing is so predictable at this point, it’s like a holiday tradition.”
“This year, we planned some mischief. Brother made some American sugar cookies, and I pretended they were mine. Auntie absolutely LOVED them.”
”She went around to everyone at the party singing my praises, saying I should take over the dessert tradition. When I finally told her the truth, she went deadpan and said ‘Oh. I thought they tasted off’.”
“Her drunk husband just abut fell out of his chair laughing at her, and she got really pissed off.”
“Our parents gave us a real dressing down later, but I think we did what we had to, to get Auntie off his back next year.”
Redditors shared what they thought by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
Redditors reached a consensus declaring the OP was NTA—this Auntie got her just desserts.
“NTA Uugh, your auntie sounds like my mum. I’m vegan, my family is vegetarian. My mum very rarely eats at my house.”
“On the occasions she does, she’ll proclaim that she doesn’t like vegan food, in front of my kids (10,4,2), so obviously they mimic her, like stfu and eat your pasta pesto, there’s nothing wrong with it.”
”She watches my kids one day a week and told me last week that she had to eat a tin of mango for lunch because there was nothing in my house to eat that she liked.”
“I know for a fact that she has pb on toast or beans on toast for lunch at her own house, plus my pantry is always over stocked, she was just being an arse for no reason. People like this are so frustrating”~ ntagatf-dilligaf
“NTA, also sounds like you have a new holiday tradition. Can auntie guess which cookies aren’t vegan!”~ Bowinja
“NTA I think people who like meat are afraid that if they admit they like something that doesn’t contain animal products, it’s the beginning of a pitch of ‘If you like this vegan food, you have to become vegan now!’”
“I’d continue this tradition, of swapping dishes with someone so she doesn’t know who made a vegan dish. At the end of the meal, have her try to guess what was vegan. Assure her afterwards that she will not forcibly be turned vegan by eating a bite without animal products in it.”
“Bring her emergency bacon bites so she can make sure she doesn’t accidentally eat something vegan, like bread or vegetables. For desserts, give her a mug of milk to dip everything in so she doesn’t accidentally ingest something vegan.”~ sweadle
“NTA. I love this! What an excellent, brilliant and nonharmful way to teach your Aunt a lesson. I applaud you both!”
“That being said, your Aunt is the AH and your parents are kind of the AH for siding with the Aunt after every harmful thing she’s said about or done to your brother.”
“Seriously, who waves meat around someone’s nose? And what does masculinity have to do with what food you choose to eat??”
“Signed Wholesomely amused, confused and craving sugar cookies.”~ doityourselfffs
“Oh nta. I think next year tell her ‘oh you don’t want these gross VEGAN desserts auntie! But don’t worry—we bought special ones just for you so you wouldn’t have to eat the weird ones!’”
“Then hand her a box of store bought Safeway cookies aaaaallllllll for her. Stale ones, preferably.”~ plantsandanger
“NTA.”
”She should have just taken the L. My mom did this to my dad. I became a vegetarian very young, and when she would change recipes, my dad would comment that it didn’t taste the same.”
“But he only said this after he learned it was vegetarian.”
”So now, years later, my sibling is vegan. For Thanksgiving, except for the desserts and turkey, every dish was vegan.”
“My mother made a ‘special plate’ for my sibling, pretending that she separated those portions from the stove before adding in the meat/animal byproduct.”
”Then when my dad commented on how good everything tasted, she revealed that it was all vegan. He laughed about it, and kept eating.”
“He learned his lesson, and we all enjoyed the meal. It’s great, he still eats meat, but he will also devour anything that I (vegetarian) or my sibling (vegan) cooks for him, because meat or not, it’s still delicious.”
”Your aunt needs to grow up, or stop eating your cookies.”
“Sorry, your brother’s cookies.”~ NotSoAverage_sister
Sorry to OP’s Auntie…but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.