Teen refuses to hide sweets while mom puts autistic brother on diet, mom gets upset.

Is there anything more frustrating than being punished for your sibling's behavior? Anyone who grew up with a sibling is all-too-familiar with the automatic eye-roll you experience when you're tasked with answering for them.

In a popular post on the AITA subreddit, a teen asked if she's wrong for not hiding food from her brother. She wrote:

"AITA for not hiding food from my autistic brother?"

As the title states, I have a 9-year-old autistic brother. I'm 17. He is on a diet where he can't eat sweets, gluten, basically anything that's sweet because my mom thinks it will help him or whatever. Because of this, we have to hide everything sweet in our house and I hate it.

I left a brownie in the fridge and my mom got mad at me for it because my brother found it and "she had to give him a piece because he wanted some" (he throws a fit sometimes otherwise). I get mad at her because I tell her that's her fault for not teaching him that sometimes the answer is a NO regardless if he throws a fit or not. AITA?

TLDR: Autistic 9-year-old brother is on a no-sweets diet; mom gets mad at me when brother finds sweet because "she has to give him some since he wanted some" or else he throws a fit.

Redditors swiftly weighed in.

BlueVelvet90 wrote:

NTA. Speaking as an Autistic person myself, I can tell you that your mom is full of more s#$t than a compost factory. The "no sugar/carbs" diet doesn't work. All it did was make me miserable. Also, what's the point of hiding sweets and stuff if they give them to him anyway if he finds them? Seems kinda backwards, if you ask me.

SnowGlowss wrote:

NTA. How does your mom justify this? The whole diet thing does nothing in regards to autism and she should know taking such a crazy approach to food is only asking for problems like an eating disorder.

kiwimuz wrote:

NTA. Your mother did not have to give him any, she chose to give him some. You are right that she is at fault for no teaching that no means no. This is only going to increase issues as he gets older.

Biotoze wrote:

She thinks diet specifically has control of autism? If so, anything she does on that information is incorrect. NTA.

starfire5105 wrote:

NTA. Your mother is sorely misinformed if she thinks diets will do anything beyond keeping him healthier like any other person. The only treatment for autism is to treat us like human beings so we don't have to mask so hard that we suppress ourselves, then explode years later because we don't know healthy self-regulation and people keep saying "you were so much less autistic before now!" 🙄

OP is NTA, her mom is severely misinformed.