Mom Upset That Her 8-Year-Old Son Was Given Cake At A Birthday Party Without Her Permission
She wants the mother of her son's friend to punish him for giving her little boy cake.
Levranii / Shutterstock An important part of parenting is making sure that your kids are on a healthy diet — it’s also one of the hardest parts of parenting since kids always want sugar and sweets.
One mom on Reddit realized just how hard it could be to maintain her son’s healthy diet when one day, she wasn’t quite able to keep it under control — he had gone to a friend’s birthday party outside of her control.
She was upset when her 8-year-old son was given a piece of cake by his friend.
In the Reddit forum where people ask for strangers’ opinions on a predicament, “r/AmItheA--hole,” the mom explained her story and why exactly she was so upset with her best friend, who was the birthday boy’s mother.
“I don't let my son have any/much junk food at all and usually he brings his own snacks (for this incident it was carrot sticks and ranch) to events that have a lot of sugary foods,” she explains.
Considering ranch is extremely high in sodium and high in saturated fats, this really isn’t the healthy alternative she thinks it is, but it’s better than nothing I suppose.
“My best friend bakes a lot and made a special chocolate cake for her son's birthday,” she continues her story. “When it comes to my son, I don't let him have cake. This is [a] personal preference for his health, not for any allergy reasons, and he is not diabetic or gluten-free.”
This is an understandable apprehension — cake is really not the healthiest thing for a child to eat. However, typically everything in moderation is okay and forbidding or penalizing certain foods can cause kids to have a negative relationship with food. One slice of cake will not increase your child’s risk of diabetes down the line!
Despite that, this mom has set clear boundaries for her son and made sure he knows he isn’t allowed to eat cake, but her best friend’s son had another plan. When the birthday boy was given a “no” on the cake, he insisted that it was a “good cake,” and so he ended up eating it.
She claims her son got a sugar rush, crashed, and was cranky for the rest of the day.
Research has shown that sugar rushes and sugar crashes are actually myths, so her aversion to her son having sugar, for this reason, may be unfounded.
“I told my friend she needs to have some kind of consequences for her son to teach him not to peer pressure other children into eating things they're not allowed to have,” she wrote. “She said because it wasn't an issue of allergies or health, that she's sorry my son was cranky but she won't be punishing her son or talking to him about it on his birthday.”
She did say that she would talk to him about boundaries and respecting eating habits another day, but the mom doesn’t quite believe her, as she claims “[she] and her husband have always said 'yes' to their son and not given him any consequences for anything.”
She and her friend were at the party themselves, but neither saw the exchanging of cake. Regardless, she just wants her friend to punish her son for the peer pressure she put on her own son, the people of Reddit, however, claim she’s at fault.
They think her son was cranky because she ruined his fun.
Since sugar rushes/crashes don’t exist, the people on Reddit claimed that the reason behind her son’s sour mood was actually her.
According to the Center For Discovery, this kind of policing of her child’s diet could actually be dangerous and lead to her son having an eating disorder later in his life. Hopefully, this Reddit thread will help her realize the error of her ways and loosen her grip on her son.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.