NEED TO KNOW
- A teenager has started buying and preparing food just for herself — and her mom isn’t happy about it
- Posting on Reddit, the 19-year-old explained that her siblings eat everything in the fridge “in a day or two”
- The majority of Redditors said she shouldn’t feel bad about buying food to meet her own needs
A teenager is being called “dramatic” by her mom after she started buying her own food and keeping it from her family because her siblings eat everything in the house.
In a post on the popular “Am I the A——” Reddit forum, the 19-year-old explained that she recently came home for summer break and is now sharing a house with her mom, her two 15-year-old sisters, her mom’s boyfriend and his two sons, ages 13 and 12.
The Redditor went on to explain that the two boys weren’t living at the house when she left for school, and she didn’t know they were living there permanently until she returned home for the summer.
“I don’t have a problem with them personally, [though] we barely speak,” she said.
The issue, she complained, is a constant lack of food in the house.
“It’s not that my mom and her boyfriend don’t buy groceries. They do,” she explained. “But no matter how much food is in the house, it’s gone in a day or two. My younger sister and ‘stepbrothers,’ I guess, eat all the time. They’ll eat a full breakfast, lunch, and dinner and then still go downstairs constantly throughout the day and night, making snacks, extra meals or just raiding the fridge.”
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The original poster (OP) said that she has recently resorted to ordering takeout and cooking her own food, which is then stored in a mini fridge in her bedroom.
“I don’t touch the shared food anymore, and I don’t ask anyone to share mine,” she said, adding, “When my mom and her boyfriend are at work, and the fridge is empty and my siblings are hungry because they ate all the food in two days, I don’t bat an eye because its not my fault or responsibility.”
The OP said that this doesn’t sit well with her mother, who has since told her that she only thinks about herself and should “think about the house as a whole.”
The OP said that when she pointed out that food used to last in the house before the two boys moved in, her mother said, “You’re just being dramatic because you don’t like them living here.”
“That’s not the case at all,” the OP said, adding, “I get that maybe I’m wrong for DoorDashing or cooking food while they’re hungry, but I’m also tired of being hungry and stressed in my own home.”
“AITA [am I the a——]?” she asked at the end of her post.
The vast majority of the teen’s fellow Redditors assured her that her feelings were valid — and that she shouldn’t feel bad about fending for herself given the situation.
“In this context, NOT your responsibility to think about the house as a whole,” one person said.
They added, “[Your mom] chose to move […] a man into her home that had kids of his own. Everyone knows tween/teen boys never stop eating, and food bills go through the roof. […] This was your mom’s decision; she gets to live with the consequences.”
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“NTA [not the a——],” said another person. “It’s true that teenagers, especially teenage boys, need to eat just an unbelievable amount of food. But feeding your step-brothers is not your responsibility. Your parents need to buy more food.”
“NTA,” said someone else before adding, “Your mom kinda is [the a——] for not planning [and] integrating all of you better.”
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