Aunt Furious When 16-Year-Old Asks For A 3rd Helping At Dinner After Working All Day Without Eating — 'Teach Your Daughter Manners'
Why did she make so much food if she didn't want it to be eaten?
AleksandarNakic | Getty Images Signature | Canva Pro Typically, when you invite people over to your house for dinner, you don't do so with any particular rules in mind, right? You make a little extra food to make sure there's enough and let everyone eat what and as much as they like. That's pretty standard when inviting people over!
Unless you're the sister of a woman on Reddit, that is. She's become a villain on social media after having an absolute meltdown over how much her niece ate, and it's blown up into a huge conflict between her and her sister.
The aunt shamed her teen niece for eating three helpings at dinner.
The Reddit story was written by the teen's mom, who is so mystified by the way the incident exploded she's wondering if she actually did something wrong without realizing it in allowing her 16-year-old daughter to eat the amount of food she wanted.
She wrote in her post that her sister recently hosted a family meal at her house. "It was one of those 'just because' dinners, no special occasion," she said. Her sister, an avid cook, made "tons" of food for her family.
Her daughter had already had two helpings of everything, but she asked for a third plate. The mom told her it was fine, but it was instantly apparent the aunt was not okay with it. "My sister (her aunt) looked at her with a shocked expression and said, 'Another plate?'" the mom wrote. It only escalated from there.
The 16-year-old had been at work and had not eaten all day, but the aunt was not understanding.
The mom wrote that her daughter is in a situation all too many American kids are forced into. At just 16, she has TWO different part-time jobs that she is working in order to save up for college tuition.
On this particular day, that meant she hadn't eaten all day long. Of course, she's also a teenager, and teens' appetites are frequently much larger than those of people older or younger than them due to the way their growth impacts their metabolisms.
So the mom "didn't even blink twice" when her daughter wanted a third plate of food. "I turned to my sister and said she's been working all day without anything to eat; you made tons of food; it won't hurt for her to get another plate," the mom wrote. Suffice it to say her sister did not agree.
The aunt became furious and humiliated the teen, saying she had 'bad manners' and her sister hadn't raised her right.
The aunt had already made the teen visibly uncomfortable, but things got so much more out of hand. "My sister started yelling," she wrote, "saying something about how it wasn't my place to say if my daughter could get more of her food that she made."
The teen ended up not getting more food, and since "the vibe was awkward," they decided to leave. On their way out the door, the aunt berated the mom, saying, "I should've taught my daughter manners and how it isn't right to get more than 1 plate at someone else's house."
Grandma then got involved and agreed with the aunt that the mom "wasn't teaching her proper manners." Even after she and her daughter left, they continued hounding her via text message, "saying how it was rude to leave in the middle of our conversation."
People online were appalled by this conflict, and many felt the aunt was just trying to fat-shame the teen.
Any way you slice it, no pun intended, this story is bizarre. Who invites people over and then polices how much they eat, especially a child who's been working all day with no food? It's utterly bizarre.
And many online were certain something else was going on — namely that the aunt was trying to fat-shame the teen girl but couching it in language about "manners" in an effort to beat around the bush.
"I'll bet $10 the daughter is also NOT thin," one Redditor wrote. "People always watch fat people's plates like they're gonna get it all." Another piggybacked on this suspicion, writing that "families are often the first place where children get judged… and where they don't feel safe."
Others pointed out a double standard likely at play: If the 16-year-old had been a boy instead, she'd probably have been allowed to eat five or six plates if she chose without any blowback.
Whatever the case, the truly sad part is how this likely made the teen girl feel, and the data on how being food and weight-shamed impacts kids and teens is conclusive.
A 2017 study found that even positive comments about kids' and teens' bodies and eating habits are correlated with negative body image and food issues later in life, including a higher incidence of eating disorders and other mental health issues.
This brings into even sharper focus one of the most obvious issues here: It's pretty bold to scold someone about "manners" when you've just humiliated someone you invited into your home for eating the food you prepared for them.
Hopefully auntie can pipe down and take a few etiquette lessons herself, and leave her niece alone.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.