Every family has that one person who is a bit…eccentric. Mostly it’s usually a harmless hobby but sometimes it can cross the line and become problematic.
Redditor FatThrowaway180 found herself in a hard situation with her sister after an uncalled for comment. She looked to the “Am I The *A**hole” (AITA) subreddit to see if she was wrong for not walking on eggshells around he sister.
She asked:
“AITA for not eating my sister’s eggs?”
The OP (original poster) explained the conflict that made her crack:
“My (F28) older sister (F35) ‘Anita’ has been keeping chickens for a ~4 years. Over time, it has slowly become her entire life. For example, her husband ‘Frank’ supports their family, but she has always maintained a part time job.”
“2 years ago, she quit to stay home full time because ‘her babies’ (the chickens) needed her. She didn’t even do this when her actual kids (15M, 13M, 12F) were small. She misses social events, sports games, etc. if the timing doesn’t work with her chicken schedule.”
“Anita will also only cook with the eggs from her chickens. She insists on hosting all family events.”
“At each one, there is a little ritual she does where she puts out two versions of some kind of egg dish (deviled eggs, egg salad, quiche, etc); one made with store-bought eggs and one made with her chickens’ eggs, and demands that everyone eats both and casts a vote for which is better, to demonstrate how much better her eggs are.”
“Frank does not participate, because he won’t eat her eggs after an incident that put him off, but everyone else is expected to. This past weekend, for the 4th, she made deviled eggs. My husband fixed me a plate of food while I was talking to my dad, which included 1 egg.”
“The egg he grabbed happened to be from the ‘store bought’ plate. My sister quickly came over and reminded me that I needed to eat a ‘real egg’ as well so I could vote. I told her no thank you, I only wanted one egg.”
“I’ve struggled with my weight for several years, and have lost ~20 lbs in the last 9 months. I don’t starve myself by any means, but I’m careful about portion control, and I was only having a little each thing so I could try the food everyone had brought.”
“Also, I just didn’t want a second egg. After repeatedly trying to make me eat a second egg, my sister finally said, ‘Fine, don’t have one. I don’t want to be blamed when you get fat again.’ (I’ve had a few times where I’ve lost weight and gained it back).”
“As we were going to leave, my sister came up to me holding a large container full of her chickens’ eggs and told me to take them home so that I could see how much better they were, since I ‘refused to participate in the game’.”
“I got irritated and said, ‘No, Anita. I don’t want your eggs. I have eggs at home. We’ve all played along with your petty egg thing for years, I know what they taste like. Stop.’”
After this comment her sister cracked and things got heated.
“She made a face and then ran upstairs to her room and began sobbing loudly enough for everyone to hear her from downstairs.”
“Since then, I’ve gotten texts from my mom telling me to apologize, from my dad telling me my mom wants me to apologize, and from Anita telling me that I humiliated her in her home and that she doesn’t want me around her kids because I’ll poison them against her, and that it’s probably my fault that Frank won’t eat her eggs anymore, and then accusing me of having an affair with Frank.”
Redditors were asked to pass judgement by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
They decided that there were no yolks about it, OP was NTA and her sister sounded a little scrambled.
“NTA Your sister sounds precious. How you jump from I don’t want to eat your eggs to you having an affair with her husband? Personally, I don’t think you did or said anything wrong.”
“Her dueling egg dishes probably get on everybody’s nerves. You were the first person to say it out loud. I’d give a hard pass on the apology unless she apologizes for the weight crack she made because you refused to force feed her eggs.” highwoodshady
“NTA. Uhhhhhh, wow. She really does go from 0-120 in the blink of an eye, huh? I don’t understand how she got from ‘you need to eat my eggs’ to ‘YOU’RE SLEEPING WITH MY HUSBAND THE EGGS PROVE IT!!!!’ but damn…”
“Is your sister okay? Like… I’m not trying to be snarky here. Is she struggling with something? Dealing with mental health issues? Has she just always been coddled by your parents and lashes out when she doesn’t get her way?”
“This… this is just such an unnecessary escalation over you not wanting to eat a second egg or bring a carton of her eggs home. I also admit to being deeply curious about the ‘incident’ that turned Frank off of her eggs tbh.” cillianellis
OP added some additional info, including what happened to make Frank turn away from fresh eggs.
“She has made this accusation a few times since she stopped going to her kids’ activities, because Frank and I both go, though my husband usually comes with me. She sees a psychiatrist for panic disorder and takes medication for it.”
“She has also been the ‘squeaky wheel’ of the family for my whole life, and it’s just understood that we humored her. As to the ‘incident’, one of her baby chickens grew up to be a rooster, and as a result her eggs end up getting fertilized.”
“If she doesn’t collect them within a couple days, they end up having little partially-developed baby chickens in them. One time an egg somehow ended up going unnoticed for a few days before making it into the kitchen and he came upon the chicken fetus thing when he cracked it into a pan.“
Perhaps OP needs to reexamine how much contact they have from her sisters fatphobic and accusatory comments.