“I told her that she can’t avoid sugar for her kid forever and that I am the cool auntie who allows the kid things that she doesn’t,” the woman wrote on Reddit
A woman says her friend has a “sugar free household” — but she breaks the rules because she’s “the cool auntie.”
The woman shared her story in a post on Reddit‘s popular “Am I the A——” forum, explaining that her friend wants to hold off on giving her 4-year-old sugary foods for “as long as possible.” However, the woman revealed that she has snuck some sweets to the child behind her friend’s back.
“Since I am the cool auntie, I always bring the kid some candies without my friend knowing,” she wrote.
Her friend eventually found out, and during the woman’s last visit, pulled her aside and told her to stop.
“She is pretty pissed at me … [but] I told her that she can’t avoid sugar for her kid forever and that I am the cool auntie who allows the kid things that she doesn’t,” the Redditor continued. “She just said that if she catches me one more time giving her kid candies, then I am not allowed to see the kid anymore.”
The woman accused her friend of “overreacting” and said that she previously told her when she was pregnant that she would be “the auntie who allows her kid everything.”
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She concluded her post by asking fellow Redditors if she was wrong to sneak sweets to her friend’s child.
In the comments section, the general consensus is that the woman seriously overstepped.
“It’s sh—- to override a parent’s nutritional choices for their kid. She is 10000% right to hold firm on this and to restrict your access if you cannot respect her parenting. This is about as obvious as it gets,” one person wrote.
“Your failure to respect your friend’s boundaries is inexcusable. While you may think your friend is too strict, this is her child, not yours, and her trying to limit refined sugars is her call entirely,” another commented.
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The same person went on to question what other things the woman might do behind her friend’s back, writing, “I’m even wondering how far you’d carry this sort of mentality to be the cool aunt (like what else would you be willing to undermine). How can your friend trust or rely on you if you are willing to sabotage her like this?”
Others pointed out that the woman can still be “the cool auntie” in many other “healthy” ways — without undermining her friend’s parenting authority.
“My kids had 4 cool aunties,” one Redditor shared. “They were cool by letting them play in the mud, taking them along on walks where they got to walk the dogs, going to the pool, going skiing in the dark, making dinner over an open fire, baking bread, going to the movies, reading comics instead of books, generally doing all the fun things adults can do with kids.”
“It was my lot to clean after all their activities,” the Redditor continued, “so they made a bit more work for me, sure. But they added a joyful energy we all appreciated. Be the fun aunt, not the candy dispenser.”
