Woman's Brother Is Offended After She Cooked Homemade Food For Everyone In Her Family Except His Stepdaughter
Her brother accused her of not caring about his stepdaughter.
Monkey Business Images | Shutterstock A woman is being defended after cooking meals from scratch for her family but not doing the same for her brother's stepdaughter.
Posting to the subreddit "r/AmItheA--hole" (AITA) — a forum where users try to figure out if they were wrong or not in an argument that has been bothering them — she explained that she "loves" making elaborate meals for her family.
Despite not being a professional chef, she will often take cooking classes to learn new recipes.
At a dinner party, she cooked homemade food for everyone in her family except her brother's stepdaughter.
In her Reddit post, the woman wrote that her brother, Greg has a nine-year-old stepdaughter, Becca, with his wife, Cheryl.
In their family, Becca is the only one who has "several" severe health conditions, including celiac and a dairy allergy, which limits the foods that she can eat.
"Last weekend I hosted a dinner at my house for my parent's wedding anniversary," she wrote.
"I made a fancy five-course dinner and in addition to my parents, I invited four close family friends, Greg, Cheryl, and Becca, and my sister, her boyfriend, and their twins."
Since she was knowledgeable of Becca's food restrictions, she decided to order from a restaurant that "specializes in gluten-free, dairy-free, as well as other allergen-free food."
She arranged for the restaurant to make a "full meal" so Becca would be able to eat during the dinner party.
In the past, the woman has made "specialty meals" for her friends who have diet restrictions, and while she loves the challenge, she didn't want to take any risks knowing how serious Becca's food allergies are.
"I have ADHD and get easily distracted, and if I even used the wrong spoon or didn't completely wash some flour off a bowl, it could make her incredibly sick."
At the dinner party, she served all of the food, including the restaurant take-out for Becca, who happily ate it and seemed fine.
However, her brother's wife was not impressed by the choice and voiced her disapproval to her husband, who eventually went to pull his sister aside.
"[Greg] said that it was 'unbelievable' that I couldn't be bothered to make something for Becca, that they'd been bragging about what a great cook I am to her," she recalled.
He claimed that his stepdaughter was now going to feel "left out" because she wasn't able to eat the same foods as the rest of the family.
Eventually, Greg, Cheryl, and Becca left after he further accused his sister of not caring enough to make his stepdaughter feel a part of their family.
"I felt like I did my best at the time, but in hindsight, I wonder if I should have tried harder to make Becca feel included since she is a relatively new addition to our family," she concluded.
A majority of people who commented on the woman's Reddit post agreed that she was NTA (Not The A-hole).
"You were incredibly thoughtful in how you handled ensuring she had a meal suitable for her," one user wrote.
"You have ADHD and are well aware that mistakes are so easily made so to ensure you didn’t seriously put this child’s health in danger, you decided the safest option was to contact a restaurant to provide something."
Another user added, "It sounds like if you made Becca's meal incorrectly, she could have a major medical issue. You're not wrong for not wanting that stress on you."
"Celiac and dairy allergies are no joke, and while it's certainly possible to make a gluten and dairy-free meal in a regular home kitchen, there's always a possibility of contamination," a third user pointed out.
"You did what you thought was safest."
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Keep up with her on Instagram and Twitter.