Patricia Grisafi
Sometimes, your small human just wants something REALLY BADLY. And nothing you do will help soothe them except that one item. It happens to the best, and it can be incredibly frustrating.
You could be exhausted and just give it to them—that’s fine. Or you could help them practice self-control and say, nope, you’re not having this right now—that’s fine too. This is usually the parent’s job, but what if a stranger made the decision for you?
A Reddit user is wondering if they were wrong to take the last piece of cake in the store, causing a child to shriek and throw a tantrum.
“There are these special slices of cake I like to get at the bakery section at my local store. I recently had surgery so I try to stock up on my items so I don’t have to make multiple trips to the store (driving is hard for me right now, especially bc I frequently have to take pain meds and I can’t drive when on those things), otherwise I wouldn’t be as much as a food ‘hoarder,'” she writes.
“Anyway there were 3 slices left and I grabbed them all, then I head to the checkout line. A mother came up behind me with her crying/screaming kid I’m guessing he was 4-5 (they weren’t there when I grabbed the cake slices, they must’ve went to the Bakery section after me and there were none left).”
“Then I’m putting the items up on the register, kid sees the cakes, shrieks/cries ‘there they are! Make her give them to me!’ The mother said ‘no that belongs to the lady’ then the kid starts to scream like a banshee, melts down to the floor, I try to ignore them and not make eye contact. I pay for my food and grab my bags, the mother shouts to me ‘really?! Would it have killed you to give one slice to my kid?! I’m a single mother!!!!!’
“I don’t think kids should learn that throwing a tantrum gets them their way, IMO it would’ve been a good teaching moment to teach the child he can’t always have what he wants.”
Should the person have given a piece of cake to the screaming child?
“NTA. The mother’s first reaction was the correct one. They belong to you. Not sure why she felt like she had to shout after you?!” said penguin-47.
“She was stuck on line with a screaming child, and if that was the week’s groceries in her cart she may not have really been able to do what she probably wanted to do, which is leave the store. She was very much in the wrong, but I have some sympathy for anybody in that situation. It’s so, so, so stressful,” said conuly.
“Enjoy the cake, you didn’t get all three out of spite. You got all three because you want to enjoy cake and people can buy however they like. It’s not like 3 is an exorbitant amount and you didn’t know someone else wanted them after you got them. Don’t think about it bc the child needs to learn that the world doesn’t revolve around what you want,” explained undercoveracctnt.
“NTA. It wouldn’t have killed you, but maybe she should set boundaries to where her child knows that approach NEVER works,” said Bozobozo111.
“You’re absolutely correct. Kids need to learn that negative actions do not have positive consequences. Pretty rude of the mom to sass you about it,” said dustyprocess.
“I feel like this is a bit more nuanced than just ‘am I the asshole.’ It’s more ‘was I entitled to be a bit of a dick in this situation.’ This sub gets so caught up in whether stuff is technically correct we forget that sometimes doing the right thing does put yourself out a little bit, and you have to go the extra mile to do it. Would it really have been a lot for you to give up a slice of cake to give to the lady and her kid? Obviously you have no actual duty to do that, but would it have been hard? Probably not to be honest, so I think whilst you were completely entitled to take all 3 slices for yourself, you kept them knowing that doing so would leave the other lady with a kid having a meltdown. Sure, that might be her fault for how she parents her kid or maybe the kid is usually well behaved and just had an awful day so she had promised them the cake to make them feel better. We will never know. In my experience I feel like I would have given up the one slice of cake because doing the lady the favour would have given me more pleasure than just eating a slice of cake. So for me, it’s a soft YTA despite the fact you had no obligation to give up your slices, but doing so would have been the nice thing to do,” explained JustAnothrBoringName.
“NTA. we don’t negotiate with terrorists, after all,” said KhalDrogHeaux.
“NTA. For all she knows you’re a single mother and they were for your kids,” said widefeetwelcome.
Lead Image: Unsplash
