Kate Hackett
Picture this: you’re an adult. A grown adult! And you are in a situation where you feel you need to tell off an 8-year-old.
Yes, yes it is a weird scenario.
Let’s check out u/__Try‘s post on AITA to see if there’s more to this story or if he is, in fact, the jerk here.
OP explains that a friend of their daughter slept over one night. The friend and his daughter made breakfast.
My daughter is 8, and she had a friend, let’s call her Jane, over for a sleepover. I was more than happy to host her, prepared activities for them and everything went great. This morning, my daughter and Jane insisted on making breakfast, which was fine. I allowed them to make toast while I made eggs and smoothies for them.
But they made toast wrong and it came out a bit burnt; the friend threw out the burnt toast and HORRIFIED OP.
They must have messed with the settings on the toaster, and the bread came out a little burnt. Jane said something along the lines of ew what happened and before I could react, she picked it up and put it in the trash. I was appalled and shocked. For context I didn’t grow up with much so tossing food in the trash is not something I’ve done or seen.
OP explained that they don’t throw away food, chastising the kid for doing so.
Although I understand she’s a child, I explained to her that this isn’t okay, people work hard to afford food etc. and of course my daughter was very embarrassed which is understandable from her perspective.
The girl’s mom told OP that they were wrong to tell the child that they don’t throw away toast.
What is crazy is Jane’s moms reaction who informed me that my behavior was unacceptable and I had no right to call out her child and it was probably traumatic for her. She took no accountability for Jane’s actions.
So… is this a jerk move?
Now three people are upset and I’m here thinking AITA?
OP’s story really doesn’t sound that awful to me. Yeah, kids will mess up stuff, but that’s why you correct them.
Edit: It’s not as much about the loss of the slice of toast as the nonchalance with which it was just tossed away that was surprising. Just to clarify.
OP added in a few edits that there was no yelling — she just told the girl they don’t toss toast.
Edit 2: I was shocked, as in it took me by surprise. It was unexpected. I didn’t yell at her, I just explained that throwing food away isn’t okay, and why that is. She seemed to take it pretty well, but must have informed her mom as well. I didn’t see her mom in-person because I dropped them off to school after.
Okay, I’m going WAY against the Reddit grain here because there’s no way OP is a jerk.
OP explained a rule in THEIR house. The kid seemed fine in the moment, then evidently told their mother about it and it became a big issue.
As one user wrote, “…kids absolutely do go running to their parents for very small things.” This person also gave an example, “my student refused to return to school for his second day of kindergarten because I made him feel unsafe when I didn’t help him when he was bleeding. What really happened? He showed me his finger which did not have a visible hangnail or anything, let alone blood. I told him he didn’t need a bandaid. He sat down and class carried on…. wouldn’t have even known he was bothered if his parents hadn’t called to tell the principal what a monster I am.”
And boy, that’s so true. Kids can be so weird.
