'AITA for feeding my niece an apple before she goes to bed because she was hungry?'
"AITA for feeding my niece an apple before bed?"
KroganScientist writes:
For context, my niece (5) took a nap after she and my sister (36) got home from school and work. She slept for over four hours. It was nearing 7 p.m. when I went downstairs to the kitchen to get some dinner, and around that time, my niece began to wake up. My sister got frustrated with me for “waking her up,” since she wanted her to sleep through the night, even though my niece woke up on her own.
Fast forward two to three hours later, it was bedtime, but my sister still hadn’t fed my niece anything since she woke up. The only thing my niece had was a Capri Sun she got from the pantry herself. At that time, I was in the kitchen prepping apples to make an apple cake when my niece came in while her mom was on her phone.
My niece saw all the apples on the counter and asked if she could have one because she was hungry and hadn’t eaten, so of course I said yes. I asked if she wanted me to cut it up for her, and she nodded. I washed and cut the apple, put it in a bowl for her, and we sat on the couch and snacked together. That’s when my sister said, “Hurry up, come on, you have to get to bed now.”
I replied, “She’s still eating and only has three apple slices left. She hasn’t eaten all night.” That made my sister upset, and she started saying I was disrespecting her boundaries, even though we’ve never talked about boundaries or set any. She’d rather scroll on her phone than have a real conversation.
I asked her how letting her daughter eat food was disrespecting her boundaries, but before I could finish, she raised her voice and said, “Who’s the parent?” in a very rude tone. It caught me off guard because I just wanted my niece to have a snack so she wouldn’t be hungry before bed, but my sister turned it into something else. It felt like she was projecting her frustrations onto me instead of addressing her own choices.
I got a little frustrated and replied, “I don’t know.” Honestly, I didn’t understand why that question was even necessary. What probably made her more upset was that my niece pointed at me when she asked it, though I immediately told my niece not to point at anyone. I was surprised she did that at all.
Instead of talking things out, my sister went back to scrolling on her phone. Then she started sighing loudly, grabbed her charger, and told my niece to come upstairs with her apples.
As she left, she looked at me and said something rude with a disgusted expression. I let my frustration get the better of me and asked why she was so mad that I gave her child apples because she was hungry.
She pointed to the TV and said, “You’re just trying to get her to watch TV and stay up with you,” even though the TV had been on long before my niece came into the room. That argument made no sense to me. So, was I wrong for feeding my niece apples before bed?
Here's what people had to say to OP:
Dittoheadforever: says:
You're NTA and your sister sounds completely unhinged. What is that supposed to mean? She put her 5 year old kid down for a nap at 3 pm and expected her to sleep until... what, 7 am the next day? She thought her child didn't need to eat supper? Is this her first day as a parent?
sadgirlkermit says:
So this child went for a nap at 3, woke up and was expected to go back to bed for the whole night without dinner or even a snack?? Holy NTA.
Marinastar_ says:
OMG, why is your sister starving her child? And why didn't you feed her a full dinner? She never ate proper dinner. How often does this happen? I'm now worried that this child goes about hungry all the time. Hope they feed her at school, at least.
1962Michael says:
NTA. It is not reasonable at all to expect a 5yo child to sleep from 3pm until morning.