Mum Loses It After Finding Out Her Vegetarian Son Ate Meat at a Party

A mum has been left wondering if she was wrong to let her friend’s 10-year-old kid accidentally eat meat during her son’s birthday party, even though his mum made sure to tell her he’s a strict vegetarian.

Taking to Reddit, the 39 year old mum wanted to know if she was the a**hole for allowing a vegetarian child to eat a meat pie while under her care. Here’s what she wrote:

“I have a son (10yo) who wanted to have some friends over for his birthday. He invited 6 of his friends for a sleep over. I made sure to let all parents know about time date etc and also asked about food allergies. One mum responded saying her son Alex was vegetarian, I said no problem I would have vegetarian options for him. Fast forward to party day, kids are having a ball and I take out the food. I come back with more and notice Alex eating a meat pie. I didn’t want to embarrass the boy in front of his friends by taking it off him so I just let him eat. He didn’t seem to mind or notice that is was meat.”

The kid must’ve known the pie had meat in it and promptly informed his mum.

“Anyway he must’ve told his mum what he had eaten as she called me up the following day and got angry that I served meat options at the party. I said my son loves pies so I wasn’t going to omit them from the menu just because her son was attending. And I presumed her son knew what he could and couldn’t eat. A few more choice words and she hung up. I spoke to my son about Alex’s vegetarianism to see how strict his diet is but my son didn’t even realise Alex was vegetarian so I’m wondering if Alex knows he is vegetarian? Anyway my sister reckons I’m a slight AH because Alex was in my care and I should have stopped him eating the pie, but idk, it wasn’t like i forced it on him. I had plenty of vegetarian options for him to choose from,” she continued.

“I know I’m not the asshole for having pies as an option at my kids party. But I did let a vegetarian kid eat one of the pies. I could be a slight AH as my sister pointed out because the kid was in my care and I should have stopped him and respected his parents wishes for his diet.”

Nearly all the commenters on Reddit supported the mum and said she was definitely NTA (not the a**hole).

NTA. He’s old enough to know if what he wants to eat. His mother can rack off. Don’t worry about it.

Yeah, I mean was OP supposed to put her hand in his mouth and remove the food?!

Or serve zero meat because of one vegetarian? I don’t think so.

At ten he 100% knows what he’s doing. He’s making a choice and the mum is gonna have to deal with the fact that the kid might not want to be veggie.

Absolutely. The kid knows what he’s doing. I used to bring groups of kids aged 7-16 on field trips. And while the forms filled up by parents would say I have 6 vegetarian kids, I’ll end up with just 1 vegetarian kid while the other 5 refuse to touch the vege options and head straight for the meat.

NTA. If Alex wanted to eat vegetarian options he would have eaten them. Sounds like his mom is forcing a vegetarian diet on him and was just upset you didn’t enforce it as well. That is her problem not yours.

NTA. The kid in question was around 10yo, he would certainly know what foods he can eat safely by that age, if allergies were a concern. Despite having all the vegetarian options available, he chose the meat pie. From what you wrote, it certainly didn’t sound like she wanted you to prevent him from eating meat. If you had taken it away from the vegetarian kid and forced him to eat the non-meat options, that would be treating him differently than the other kids. Might not be the AH move if mom told you to prevent him from eating meat, but it would certainly feel that way to the kid. And his mom didn’t tell you he wasn’t allowed to eat meat; just that he was a vegetarian.

You are not the kid’s mother, you are the temporary authority figure while he was away from parents. You used your best judgement at the time with the information you had. If she didn’t want her kid eating meat, she should have said so. But she didn’t.

NTA although I would quietly have asked him if he was aware there was meat in the pie.

Depending on how strict the diet is it can actually be sort of harmful as he does not necessarily have the gut bacteria needed to properly digest the meat and thus worst case can end up with something similar to food poisoning> In either case him being vegetarian doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be meat available at all.

How would you feel if your vegetarian kid accidentally ate some meat? And should parties not serve meat if there are vegetarian kids in attendance? Thoughts?

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