Stepmom cruelly fat shames six-year-old girl on birthday

Online, a mother is receiving harsh criticism for fat-shaming her stepdaughter, whom she coerced into forgoing cake on her sixth birthday in favor of making “healthy choices.”

The mom, who controls food intake in her home, claims that she is attempting to instill healthy habits in the “overweight” girl who “eats like garbage.” However, the stepmother is referred to as “self-righteous” by the internet community, which also fears the youngster would eventually acquire an eating issue.

A woman described a circumstance involving her husband’s six-year-old kid on the “Am I the A” subreddit approximately a year ago.

Giving some backstory, the 34-year-old health-conscious mother states that she married a 40-year-old man and had two boys, ages eight and ten, from a previous marriage. She also became Gwen’s stepmother. The little girl lives with her biological mother, whose “blood type is probably ketchup,” most of the time, and spends two weekends a month with her blended family. In a similar vein, Gwen weighs roughly 20 pounds more than a six-year-old should.

Credit: Shutterstock

Our home is health-conscious, and we emphasize moderation and limiting our intake of goodies. We also try very hard to keep the boys moving every day, and we are pretty active,” the woman writes.

Additionally, she says, “I try to teach Gwen about healthy eating and moving around,” when her stepdaughter pays her a visit. She gets more energetic when the guys play with her.

She makes it clear that teaching children to “make a distinction between foods that are healthy and ones that aren’t” is a key component of good eating.

“If I notice a child going for a “treat” food in the pantry, I’ll ask them if they’d rather choose something healthy. And Gwen is really understanding; she’s starting to make better decisions all the time and it’s great that she asks for fruit at home.

Credit: Shutterstock

But Redditors raged over her parenting style along with the food shaming.

“Good idea: providing healthy meals for the kid, and she’s happily eating them. Bad idea: following them into the pantry and shaming them into picking something they don’t want to appease you,” writes one.

A second suggests the child is too young to make the “distinction,” saying “At this age they don’t understand the concept of calories nor should they. It’s a parent’s job to provide healthy food, not a child’s job to ‘choose it.’ All you’re giving this child from this is anxiety related to eating.”

Unhappy birthday

Unfortunately for Gwen, her birthday fell on a weekend with her father and instead of putting cake on the table, the OP again pushed the child to make a “healthier choice.”

“My reasoning is unfortunately she’s still getting all that garbage at home, and it’s just not good for a growing girl. She agreed and we decided to have some low-fat ice cream so she can still have a sweet treat. It’s a brand Gwen loves and asks for every time she’s here, so she was happy with it.”

Credit: Shutterstock

But when the weekend was over and the child returned home to her mother, the OP received a phone call.

“Her mom called us furious; she said then when Gwen got home and she asked about her birthday with us and her cake, Gwen started crying because she really did want cake but didn’t want to ‘make a bad choice.’ She accused me of fat shaming her and her daughter and that I owe her a cake and a big apology.”

‘Creating eating disorders’

Before asking Redditors “AITA for not having cake for her birthday?” the mom justifies her decision of denying Gwen a happy birthday. She shares, “I’m just looking out for the health of a child in my care, but I never said Gwen couldn’t have cake and she could have had one if she said she wanted one. I suggested sticking to ice cream because I care.”

An overwhelming majority of netizens agreed that “YTA******”

Credit: Shutterstock

One Redditor snipes, “She’s 5. Give the child goddamn cake on her birthday and then go for a family walk after.

Also FYI, the good choice/ bad choice talk is just going to give her body image issues for the rest of her life.”

Another suggests the child lied about wanting cake out of fear, adding “the fact that the kid LIED and was afraid, didn’t want to say how she really felt, and what she really wanted for her own damn birthday, says a lot more is going on between these lines OP has written.”

A third writes, “As someone with an eating disorder, this is how you give kids eating disorders.”

Credit: Shutterstock

Meanwhile, another says the stepmom has a superiority complex. “OP is too stuck up [on] her own self-righteousness to realize she’s creating eating disorders in everyone around her,” they write.

Everyone deserves to indulge on cake on their birthday without being shamed!

What are your thoughts on this mother? Please let us know what you think and then share this story so we can hear from others!

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