Stepmom Asks if She’s Wrong for Refusing to Cook Teen’s Limited Meals

A frustrated woman seeks advice from the Reddit community after growing tired of her stepdaughter’s limited eating habits. 

In her post, the 46-year-old explains that she has been with her 52-year-old partner for 11 years, and together they share custody of three children.

“My issue is that my partner’s daughter has huge food issues,” she writes, sharing that the 17-year-old girl refuses to eat anything outside a small range of basic foods. “She has no diversity in her food, won’t try anything new and we basically live off chicken and mince when she is here.”

The stepmother admits she feels worn down from making meals that cater to one child’s narrow diet. “She won’t eat fruit and only has very basic vegetables (carrot, lettuce and cucumber). I’m sooooo sick of the same meals every week.”

The poster says the situation has taken a toll on her own relationship with food. “I can’t even eat the spaghetti bolognese anymore, and everything I cook for the family is fatty, and horrible,” she writes, adding, “My kids are sick of it and so am I.”

Over the years, she has tried to encourage her partner to address the issue. “I have asked my partner dozens of times over the years to get her into some food therapy program, but he has just ignored my requests,” she explains.

As a busy mom working full-time, she feels the burden has become too much to carry on her own. “I don’t want to make individual meals for her, she will be 18 next month so I can’t see a reason as to why she can’t sort herself out.”

She admits she recently told her partner that his daughter should begin preparing her own meals so the rest of the family can enjoy a more varied diet. “AITA for saying to my partner that she needs to sort her own meals out so that we can eat normally again?” she asks the Reddit community.

Many commenters sided with the poster, insisting she is not in the wrong for voicing her frustrations. One reader responds, “You are NTA, and I would not ‘ask’ your partner, I would ‘inform’ him that this is what is going to start happening.”

That commenter agreed that the teenager is old enough to take responsibility for her own food. “She can go get herself a Happy Meal with McNuggets or whatever, but the rest of you are going to start having normal meals,” they write.

They also recommend a middle ground that ensures the teen still feels supported. “She can eat however she wants to, but she does not get to hold the entire family hostage to her weird dietary preferences,” the user continued. “Keep the things she eats on hand, so she will have something to eat, but she can fix it herself.”

Another commenter echoed the same sentiment, reminding the original poster that the situation doesn’t have to be framed as an attack. “NTA—If she eats the same thing all the time she should have no trouble learning to make it herself tbh,” the user replied.

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They added that teaching her stepdaughter how to cook may even be a helpful step. “Maybe you can help teach her how to cook her own meals when you have some free time? So that she doesn’t feel like it’s a personal attack on her.”